Problems with repartitioning a HP Pavilion Laptop

[NoOp]

On 08/17/2012 11:03 AM, Bill Stanley wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have installed Linux on many computers but this is the first time I 
> had any problems.  The computer is a new HP Pavilion Model dV6 laptop, I 
> assume the HD is ATA Hitachi HTS54505.  I used the Windows partitioning 
> utility to resize the Windows partition so I would have some unused 
> space (100 GB) where I could install Linux.  This went smoothly and 

They you should have noticed 'HP_TOOLS (E:), 103 MB FAT32 Healthy
(Primary Partition)' or similar.


> Windows ran smoothly with the reduced partition size.  I used Windows 
> about a month without any problems.

Of course it would - it still has all 4 primary partitions in place:
System/C:/Recovery (D:)/HP_TOOLS (E:).

HP have configured their PC's with 4 primary partitions (check the
archives here). You'll need to copy all of the data from 'E:' to a
backup directory in 'C:', delete 'E:' and then install.

> 
> Yesterday, I had some free time so I decided to install Xubuntu (12.04 - 
> 64 bit) and all seemed to go smoothly.  The steps I followed were...
...

> 
> "             ERROR!
> Error informing the kernel about modifications to partition 4 - Device 
> or resource busy.  This means Linux won't know about any changes made to 
> /dev/sda4 until you reboot - so you shouldn't use it before rebooting"

See above.

> 
> 
> I thought this was insignificant since sda4 wasn't listed in the 
> proposed partition scheme.  I chose "ignore".
> 
> Then I got the same message about sda5, sda6, and sda7.  I knew 
> something was amiss so I aborted the installation.
...

Load up a live CD, run the standard 'sudo fdisk -l' etc., post here.
Open gparted and note the primary partitions, post here.

Don't panic, don't follow any other dd this or dd that advise, don't
reformat, don't reinstall. Just post the standard info that you've seen
requested in many, many other threads there.