how install win w/o wiping the disk

Sat Jul 14 14:22:17 UTC 2012

On Saturday 14 July 2012 10:14:05 G. did opine:

> On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 10:49 AM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:
> > On Saturday 14 July 2012 06:31:37 G. did opine:
> >> On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 6:13 AM, G. <pegngaryubuntu at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 5:44 AM, G. <pegngaryubuntu at gmail.com> 
wrote:
> >> >> On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 4:25 PM, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com>
> > 
> > wrote:
> >> >>> On 13 July 2012 17:23, Colin Law <clanlaw at googlemail.com> wrote:
> >> >>>> I had forgotten that it is formatted GPT.  That may well be an
> >> >>>> issue.
> >> >>> 
> >> >>> Yup - that's the origin of the whole problem.
> >> >>> 
> >> >>> --
> >> >> 
> >> >>> Liam Proven • Profile:
> >> >> Looks like the GPT issue is still with me after wiping the disk
> >> >> and installing W7.  See  http://paste.ubuntu.com/1091028/
> >> >> 
> >> >> When I install Ubuntu 12 the partitioner does not see the windows
> >> >> partition. I ran chkdsk/f and the disk seems fine and Ubuntu works
> >> >> fine from the usb stick.
> >> >> 
> >> >> Before I installed windows I reformatted the entire hard disk with
> >> >> gparted.  That apparently did not eliminate the GPT partition.
> >> >> 
> >> >> I appreciate your assistance.
> >> >> 
> >> >> garyk
> >> > 
> >> > In Nautilus I can see a 1.1 gig entry.  When I try to mount it I
> >> > get "could not find /cow"  Also when I boot to install ubuntu
> >> > there is an entry besides the atachi hard drive.  I suppose this
> >> > the GPT causing the problem.
> >> > 
> >> > garyk
> >> 
> >> Perhaps I have found the problem.  WHen I formatted the disk with
> >> gparted I did not make a partition table.  Instructions I found on a
> >> windows site
> >> http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_in
> >> st
> >> all/windows-cannot-be-installed-on-this-disk-thryke/8fa72a3e-10c5-47
> >> da-a 040-1e0db62af309
> >> 
> >> 
> >> If the Windows install disk doesn’t work for the above you can do the
> >> following to reformat your drive:
> >> 
> >> 1. Download and burn a Gparted ISO from here:
> >> http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ 2. Boot from the Gparted disk.
> >> 3. Use Gparted to delete all partitions on the hard drive.
> >> 4. Under “Device” choose Create Partition Table to make a new
> >> partition table. THIS IS THE STEP I DID NOT EXECUTE
> >> 5. Create a NTFS partition (or you could wait and create a partition
> >> when installing Windows).
> >> 6. Then boot from the Windows install disk and install Windows.
> >> 
> >> Could this be it?  Would step 4 eliminate the GPT?
> >> 
> >> garyk
> > 
> > I hesitate to make a recommendation since doing a google for GPT Disk
> > and finding some background on it.
> > 
> > 1.  It seems to be the "next generation" standard for partition table
> > formatting, eradicating many of the current MBR format limitations,
> > like size of a given partition, and the maximum number of partitions
> > on a given disk.  And with its maintenance of multiple copies of its
> > partition database, it has the potential to be self healing, like
> > when we are forced to us an alternate inode table when e2fscking an
> > extN partition.  From my reading just now, it has been around for a
> > while but disk sizes are just now approaching the limits of the MBR
> > format in terms of partition sizes.
> > 
> > Because our tools do not yet appear to fully understand this new
> > method, they may also contain the seeds of its destruction by
> > reformatting a piece of the disk that did contain the GPT's backup
> > data tables.
> > 
> > Food for thought folks, while our tools, like gparted, play catchup
> > with this new method.
> > 
> > First question then is:  How big is this disk?
> > 
> > Cheers, Gene
> > --
> > 
> > "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
> >  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> > 
> > -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> > My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> is up!
> > History is on our side (as long as we can control the historians).
> > 
> > --
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> 
> It's around 230 gigs.

So an MBR setup _could_ be used.  It is the 2 terrabyte disk size mark that 
makes GPT become attractive.  We will no doubt see more and more of it as 
the disks densities increase past the 2TB overall size mark. Personally, I 
boggle at a disk structure reservation that is slightly bigger than the 
whole disk for the 2 old seagate Hawk scsi drives I use with a color 
computer 3 & the Nitros09 OS. ;-)

> garyk

Cheers, Gene
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> is up!
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