No partitions showing during installation

Question

I have a HP EliteBook 8570w with Windows7 pre-installed. when I try to install ubuntu from either a disk or a USB-stick, it skips the third step and I don't get to see any partitions at all:

The output of sudo fdisk -lu:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb760cea1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      616447      307200    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          616448   210339044   104861298+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       210339840   959995903   374828032   83  Linux
/dev/sda4       959995904   976773119     8388608   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 24.0 GB, 24015495168 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2919 cylinders, total 46905264 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x57000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

The output of sudo parted -l:

Model: ATA WDC WD5000BPKT-6 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End    Size    Type     File system     Flags
 1      1049kB  316MB  315MB   primary  ntfs            boot
 2      316MB   108GB  107GB   primary  ntfs
 3      108GB   492GB  384GB   primary  ext4
 4      492GB   500GB  8590MB  primary  linux-swap(v1)


Error: /dev/sdb: unrecognised disk label                                  

Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system).  /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!                           

What I've tried:

sudo gdisk /dev/sda2:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb760cea1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      616447      307200    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          616448   210339044   104861298+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       210339840   959995903   374828032   83  Linux
/dev/sda4       959995904   976773119     8388608   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 24.0 GB, 24015495168 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2919 cylinders, total 46905264 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x57000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

chdisk /f

In Windows I've tried this but it also didn't solve my problem.

Setting my SATA mode from RAID to AHCI

This didn't work out either. I had to reset it to RAID to get Windows7 working again

Installing 12.04 instead of 13.04

But the problem keeps persisting

Disabling my SLC mSATA cache module

Windows wouldn't start again and the problem persisted

---

If anyone could provide me with an answer I would be delighted. Thank you in advance.

Solution

You also have the 4 primary partition issue.

My laptop already has 4 primary partitions: how can I install Ubuntu?

Be sure to create recovery DVD(s) first as well as a Windows repair CD.

HP Tools Partition discussion

If you shrink Windows using Windows disk tools and backup HP tools. You can then use gparted to create one large extended partition and have many logical partitions. You can restore HP tools in one if you want. You can make a shared NTFS data partition if you want and you can install Ubuntu in / (root), swap and /home again if you want that as a separate partition.

Update:

If system was an Ultrabook it has Intel SRT which somehow uses RAID. You need to turn off the SRT and then remove the meta-data on both drives. If still booting Windows you can turn SRT back on and it should work.

sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sda
sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sdb

Some other issues can be dynamic or LDM partitions if you used Windows to create extra partitions, or left over gpt backup partition table where drive was gpt and you use Windows install in MBR mode.

Comments

[jsnydr]

Could something about /dev/sdb be breaking the installer's partition tool? Have you tried removing sdb (or adding a valid partition table) for the duration of the install?

[Braiam]

What you have in the /dev/sda3 and sda4 partitions?

[Joren]

Those are the ext4 and swap partitions for future ubuntu

[Joren]

I now have 4 primary partitions including the linux ext4 and swap partitions. The partitions still won't show in ubuntu installation.

[Joren]

Thank you for your answer, but I've made the partitions beforehand and it didn't solve anything.

[oldfred]

Does Windows need a chkdsk or is it hibernated? Was drive ever RAID? Or gpt and you installed Windows in MBR mode? Post this 'sudo parted -l'

[Joren]

That did the trick! If you could post this as an answer I will mark it as the accepted one. Many thanks!