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installing to 20 gig hard drive

Asked by Michael

I try to install ubuntu 9.10 to a 20 gig maxtor hard drive and when i go to boot it, it says (ERROR: out of disk:) then defaults to the grub rescue prompt - GRUB RESCUE>

i reinstalled 4 times and does the same thing. i let the cd partition the drive for the main part and the part partition for the swap file.

Then i put in a 40 gig western digital hard drive, boots up into ubuntu like nothing happened. runs as smooth as a baby's bottom

When you install from a cd it should only install 2 to 4 gigs of stuff and thats it, for some reason UBUNTU does not like 20 gig hard drives of any type.

Put a 40 gig hard drive in no problem. There are other folks that have experienced something like this. its all over the net. boots up then defaults to the GRUB RESCUE> prompt with the error (ERROR:OUT OF DISK:) is there something about ubuntu that it doesn't like 20 gig hard drives??

yet out of the 40 gig hard drive space used only about 4 to 6 gigs are used, thats after i install open office and the other things i like from the apt-install command line. and theres still 13 gigs left on the hard drive (plenty of space)

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Willrandship@gmail.com
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arochester (arochester) said : 		#1

Was the hard disk clean and unformatted before you started? Did you tell it to use the whole disk? -or part?

I would be tempted to look at it using a Linux app like GParted to see how it is partitioned and formatted. If it was previously partitioned and formatted to Windows to NTFS and covered, say 18Gb, then Ubuntu might have tried to install in the remaining 2Gb ...

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Willrandship@gmail.com (willrandship) said : 		#2

Here's one thing that might help.
When I installed Ubuntu, if I partitioned it manually it didn't always work, usually because I did something wrong. Did you select the "Use the entire disk" option? That should allow for automatic partitioning, avoiding possible mistakes. Also, 20 Gig hard drives should work fine. I've used it with one before, but that was 9.04, not 9.10. Maybe it's a strange error!

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Best Willrandship@gmail.com (willrandship) said : 		#3

Also, make sure you have at least 4 gig of space. Ubuntu requires at least that much. If you want less you could try puppy linux, or slitaz, or DSL.

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Jeruvy (jeruvy) said : 		#4

I too am going to vote on either: 1) Not a fresh disk with 20GB FREE space, or 2) A problem with the disk itself. I have installed Ubuntu Karmic on as little as 8GB and it works but I'd highly recommend at least 16GB or more FREE space.

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Michael (jetson213) said : 		#5

I let ubuntu do the partitioning for me. I can upgrade over the internet from ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10 and boots without issue on the 20 gig hard drive, but when i try to do a clean install 9.10 thats when it gives me the trouble. error:out of disk. I can install ubuntu 9.04 directly to the 20 gig hard drive without issue. It got me. I know there is nothing wrong with the hard drive.

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Michael (jetson213) said : 		#6

It looks like you are not paying attention to the details in the question. when its fully installed, it takes up 4 gigs of space out the 20 gig of space and there is 16 gigs left over. Instead of playing with it i stuck a 40 gig hard drive in. I never will switch from ubuntu. Kubuntu and Ubuntu is the good ones. DEBIAN based packages.

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Willrandship@gmail.com (willrandship) said : 		#7

There is no real "best" linux os. There is only what you need. Ubuntu is considered one of the most user-friendly and also one of the best desktops, so it is probably best for you! Glad to see you solved it!