Mint installer fails to offer a non-destructive option on my second disk.
 

I am trying to install Mint 9 on a new disk that now has 4 partitions (2 XP and 2 Ubuntu) on it. The original disk (I assume it is /dev/sda) now only has XP on it. I am booting XP or Ubuntu from grub on new disk (I assume it is /dev/sdb).
The install routine asks me whether to unmount /dev/sda; I answer "no". On "Prepare disk space", I answer "Specify partitions manually".
I now see /dev/sda1 and free space on sda1 and I see /dev/sdb with NO other information. I click on /dev/sdb, "new partion table" and it shows me all 100 gig as free space. At no time do I ever see an option for adding a new partition.

Any ideas why the installer doesn't recognize the existing partitions on /dev/sdb ?

Jon

Could you post your partition information from both disks? Using the Mint CD, open a terminal and run the command: sudo fdisk -l (lower case Letter L in the command).

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000cdc97

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9790 78638143+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3d7b87d2

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 39162 314568733+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 105827 121227 123708532+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 39163 121601 662191267+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 39163 48299 73392921 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6 121228 121601 3004123+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order
_________________________________________________
/dev/sda is the old disk, now containing only XP and freespace.
/dev/sdb is the first boot disk in the bios.
/dev/sdb1 is the new disk, XP
/dev/sdb2, sdb3 and sdb6 is kubuntu
/dev/sdb5 is data for XP

I haven't installed Linux Mint since LM7 so I don't know if there have been any changes in the installation method. The process was loading the CD, clicking the Install icon on the Desktop, selecting language, time zone, keyboard and then getting the Partitioner. After selecting Specify Partitions Manually, there is a message scanning disks and then it showed the partitions. Is this the point at which you run into problems? When you click on sdb to highlight, does it show anything? Is there an edit option and does it show anything?

I'm not sure what the problem would be. Might be a bad download, did you run the md5checksum after download?

Yes, I see the same install sequence up to the point where I click on sdb. Nothing shows up. No edit option.
Yes, I ran the checksum just prior to burning the iso; it matched.

The only new info I have is that I tried to boot Kubuntu (on sdb) from grub menu, to see if I could get more information directly. That caused a system hang. From that point on I had NO hard disk OS'es at all, with grub error about invalid file system. I spent today recovering the old disk and currently have XP running. I think that the MBR was messed up.

My guess is that the new disk routine did not clone my Kubuntu partitions over correctly. /boot/grub/menu.lst is good on both sda and sdb.

Perhaps my best shot is to remove the grub boot stuff, wipe the new disk, reclone XP to the new disk, remove the Kubuntu stuff if they come over with the cloning, and do a fresh install of Mint 9. (Abandoning Kubuntu.) I have not a clue how to undo the grub boot. Any ideas?

Thanks, Jon

Which Kubuntu do you have? Linux Mint 9 uses Grub 2 as do versions 9.10 and higher of Ubuntu derivatives. If you are/were using these versions, then you should not have any menu.lst file as Grub2 does not use it.

Did you clone Kubuntu from another drive or install fresh?

Here's a link to a Grub2 tutorial which might help:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html

Pretty sure it's grub (1) .
Cloned old, dying disk to new big disk, using Seagate's included software. (It is Acronis, which I also have available.) So, all 4 partitions got cloned. Booted first time! I swapped the boot disk sequence (to sdb, which had become XP C:\) and all seemed well until I began the Mint 9 install.

The Kubuntu is old, version 5 or thereabouts. I couldn't upgrade from there, so I decided to look elsewhere. The only Linux I now have is from CD boot. (Several varieties of Ubuntu and Mint).

Are you saying that the grub difference might be part of the problem? Hummmm. ????
Jon

When you were at the partitioner did you by any chance click in the "New partition table" button and then created partitions? Because if you did that you just wiped the entire HD clean (both your Linuces at sdb2 & sdb6 and your malware collection at sdb1 & sdb5). Also, just a bit of curiosity, why holding so much malware on that box (two partitions plus an entire HD)?

No, I didn't create new partitions. (Been there, done that, 30 years ago!)
My current state is: Using grub, which offers me XP and several Ubuntu OS'es, but now only XP works. The grub file is obviously still there, but all of the Linux OS'es are hosed. They completely hang during the boot process and it takes lots of work just to get back to booting XP via grub.
What I need to do is UNDO everything that the original grub setup did, especially the boot sector data. Then, booting up in XP an using Acronis Disk Director, remove the Linux partitions, re-create those partitions (completely cleaning them), and then install the new Linux OS, with dual boot.
Any ideas? (I do NOT have XP disk to reinstall.)

Vis-a-vis malware: keeping the old, original (beginning to fail) disk around to recover any snafus that occur. Right now, it's in the machine but not hooked up and no power to it.

Also relevant is that I am currently doing a lot of writing, and OO swriter is not nearly as polished as MS Word. And this opinion is from a retired techie that spent his final fifteen years in the business happily writing QA test scripts in Unix (HP, IBM, Sun) for a major database company and others. So, no flames, plz, except for Word and a few other programs, I prefer *nix.
To update an old saying;
Linux: What you see is what you get.
Mac: What you see is ALL you get.
Windows: The ultimate virus.
Jon

I noticed in one of your posts above that you switched drives at some point. Moved the xp drive to a different cable? put the new drive on the first cable?

Is you set up still the same in regard to your post two months ago with the fdisk output? If not, run it again and go to grub and run geometry commands: geometry (hd0)(hit enter key for output)
geometry (hd1)(again enter for output)

compare the two.

Which drive is first in BIOS boot priority? old or new?
Are you saying you boot with grub but can't boot any Linux?
Which Linux OS(s) do you have now?
Did you ever get Mint installed? Using a newer Ubuntu?