Hi,

I have successfully installed Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon on several PCs. These PCs have a single SSD, and run Mint as the only OS.

But I'm now trying to install it on my main PC which will be a dual book scenario on a system with 2 drives - a 256GB SSD and a 1TB spinner.

Mint install does not detect the Windows OS at all and says that my entire SSD is free space. It shows the correct partitions for the spinner.

My disk configuration is attached.

IIRC - I read somewhere that Linux does not like to install if the partition begins beyond the 100 GB point, which is why I have only allocated 96 GB for the Windows C:\ drive.

Can anyone shed any light on why it doesn't detect my SSD partitions?

thanks
Tanya

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Hi there,

that's a new idea for me, never heard of that before (which doesn't mean a thing).

Just a wild guess: Your SSD may be formatted using the "new" GPT partitioning scheme, instead of legacy MBR scheme. AFAIK the partitioning tool used during Mint's install can't deal with that.

I regret I can't offer a solution, but maybe that's something to pursue.

[X] Doc CPU

Sadly, no, according to DISKPART it is MBR.

Why not resizing your windows partition before by using gparte. You can reduce the windows partition to make room for Mint, you can leave it as unallocated space then during installation just tell the installer to put Mint in the unallocated partition. If you must format the unalocated space use an ext4 format.

In Linux the partitions are not showed as you know them in windows however you can tell because you know the size of them

Good luck to you

I had already left 30GB of unallocated space on the SSD for the Linux install (I was going to mount 24GB under / and 6GB under /swap, as I have 32GB of RAM).

Even after shrinking my windows partition to 80GB, the Mint installer still could not see the partitions; it still sees the entire drive as unallocated space.

So, I upgraded the firmware on my OCZ Vertex 4 SSD, and still no joy.

I know that if I format the SSD, and install Mint on an empty drive I will be able to install Mint, but then, how would I go installing Windows 7 AFTER installing Mint?

EDIT: Windows is installed with AHCI enabled. A Google search didn't find anything about known issues with AHCI, but that's about the only other thing that I can think of... Any thoughts?

so during the installation in the step in which the insaller ask you to set up your partition it gives you different options and there is one that says 'something else'. That is the one you need to select. then it should let you modify your partition.

For swap you will be find leaving maybe 2 GB and make partition for / (Root) with perhaps 15 GB the rest 13 GB for /home

Good luck to you

Yes TroN, that is the option I select.

Problem is that it sees the entire SSD as unallocated space. Clicking + gives me the ability to create a partition with the whole space (rather than the REAL unallocated space). It's just not recognizing any partitions on the drive at all, even though they are MBR partitions.

How do you confirm the partition changes?
diskfree human-readable
Could the win7 drive be encrypted?

Does the system use uefi boot?

A longwinded way...

whilst using win7 os or a liveboot distro like partedmagic/gparted,

use the disktools to create a new partition of the desired (max)size and format it fat32.

copy some text to it to see if it copies (read/write access)

now reboot mint , I hope you can see the new partition

If that works, Takes time to sit through the format...

begin your install to the new partition, carving up the pie for your linux system.

Hope this helps.

You may be in reboot hell right now, but no one mentioned, so...

do you reboot windows after adjusting the partitions?

No, it is not encrypted. Basic NTFS volume.

Yes

I will give that a try.

---------- Post added Aug 11th, 2013 at 18:45 ----------

Yes, I did.

Well, imho, I think this is an uefi boot issue.

You may need to re-ask this question, mentioning/refering to "uefi"

Because I have no experience with uefi boot.

If this is true, doing any disk partitioning probably won't show up after either.

This post mentions "secure boot" and uefi settings , "Turn off secure boot".

http://www.itworld.com/software/3685...guide?page=0,1
Avoiding Secure Boot on Windows 8 PCs

Although it does not mention your systems symptoms, it may be worth a shot.

Hi all,

Well, after about a month trying to address this issue, I have had no joy. No matter what I try Linux installer will NOT see multiple partitions on my OCZ Vertex 4 SSD.

I have tried UEFI and NON-UEFI boot. No secure boot, AHCI mode, non-AHCI, deleting all partitions on the SSD, then clean[ing] the drive, then create a couple of empty partitions and run installer. It will only see one partition.

GParted sees the partitions fine, and it reports no errors when I tried it on the empty partitioned drive.

Seems my option is Linux only, or a Linux VM, neither of those options I'm particularly fond of.

Tanya

It seems .. weird!(?)

Must be a mistake here somewhere.

Up to 4 primary partitions on a disk is fine. ref. http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...6/#post2629460

I'm really not sure about mixing primary and logical partitions without an extended partition.

and or, being able to confirm mbr/GPT partitioning

After that, it comes down to the system bios settings/?

Another thought,

install linux, creating but leaving a very big partition space for windows

install win,

when ready reinstall grub from a live disk.

all the best

maybe something wrong with your mint iso?