I have vista ultimate 32bit installed on my quad core system with 500gb hard disk. I have accidentally made the disk dynamic and I have simple partitions. Can I install ubuntu/wubi (9.04) on a simple partition?

I am able to run the liveCD image without any problems. But when I execute fdisk -l,

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x27fecc8d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1 992+ 42 SFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 1 15298 122880000 42 SFS
/dev/sda3 15298 60802 365504536 42 SFS
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Under Windows, I have 4 "Simple" volumes of 120 GB each with Vista installed in C:. Ubuntu recognises these as 2 different volumes. Is there a turnaround in which I can install ubuntu without affecting my data?

Hello,

as far as I know you can install Ubuntu "on top" of a windows installation. This is something like an intermixture of dualboot and a virtual machine. Dualboot is configured in the boot.ini of windows.

I once tried this an it worked. I'd recommend to look at the documentation of your live-CD.

Markus

I haven't seen this before - looks like this 'dynamic disk' and whatever fdisk is identifying as SFS is some Windows weirdness. Honestly, it might be simplest to just buy a cheap hard drive and install to that. Dunno what they cost where you're at, but I'm looking at 160 GB for $40, which is probably well worth it since you don't have to deal with any crazy partitioning, etc.

Agree with the above. I have a few other comments I hope will be helpful:

I've installed Slackware onto one of these "SFS" type partitions made by XP's Dynamic Disks. I presume the Vista ones are no different (as long as they're "simple" and not the 64 bit Vista GPT ones).

As far as the volume count is concerned, you *might* need to "retain" your simple volumes using diskpart under Windows before Ubuntu sees all 4 volumes. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415/en-us under "retain"

You can always go back to basic disks instead of dynamic disks. Probably less headache in the long run, even if you need to do a complete reinstall. Really the only reasons to stick with the dynamic disks is if you want to use Windows software RAID and dual boot. You might need to reinstall Windows though: good way to check your backup strategy!

Instead of the boot.ini method, you can use grub 0.97 to dualboot, but it has to be patched to understand LDM; I don't know about Ubuntu 9.04's grub though, it might not be patched (though I'd be surprised by that)... and I haven't tried wubi so I can't help you with that at all.

So,
I only need to make all my volumes "retain"ed and install ubuntu as dual boot on one of the volumes, right?

I'll try that right away and thanks for your help!

Now, I tried the retain command on all the 4 volumes and all of them are partitions. I shrunk one of the volumes to allow 20gb space. But ubuntu installer says that the space is unusable.

Well, perhaps wubi doesn't like dynamic disk partitions, and if you try the "non-wubi" regular install, ubuntu's grub may not be patched for LDM (Windows Dynamic Disks). Or perhaps your "shrinking" operation (was that done with ubuntu?) wasn't done in a way the installer approved.

At the risk of repeating myself, the only reason to stick with LDM is if you want dual booting and Windows software raid. That's not an easy install, it took a while for me to get it working. I think the easiest and most reliable thing would be to go back to basic disks and uncomplicate your life.

I had shrunk my partitions in Vista. Thanks for your help, i'll convert them to basic disks and then install ubuntu.