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I just bought a acer aspire laptop. I wanted to install Ubuntu and dual boot with Windows 7. When i tried to do this, I accidentally deleted my windows partition altogether.

I got the recover disks from Acer, but when I tried to restore the partition, it told me it ran out of space.enter image description here

Here's my partition table. I would like recommendations. I obviously am not going to be cavalier at this point about deleting partitions, but I did clonezilla my drive off and I will again before doing anything too destructive.

My thoughts are to create one big unallocated space outside the secondary partition, but I'm not sure why the extended partition's divided up as it is.

All advice appreciated.

3 Answers 3

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The Acer recovery disc reinstall Windows but in a special way in order to have the less interaction with the user and to preinstall all the programs that were bundled in it.

Due to it's automatic way, it can't install windows in some schemes, even if you have the free disk space.

In order to reinstall Windows you have two choices :

  1. Use Acer recovery disk
  2. Look for a genuine microsoft windows 7 with the exact same language and edition (some friend of yours must have one ....)

For the part 1 :

  • Backup your personal Data (windows partitions and Linux partitions)
  • Run Ubuntu Live CD and install gparted
  • Remove every single partition on the disk (ntfs, ext4, extented, ...)
  • Proceed with the acer disk
  • Proceed with ubuntu installation

For the part 2 : - Backup your personal Data (windows partitions and Linux partitions) - Run gparted and delete both ntfs and shrink the extended partition in order to leave 0Mb free inside it and everything outside. - Proceed with the Windows disk and put your licence that is hidden below or below the battery - Proceed with the Ubuntu Live for repairing the dual boot - Done, you kept at least your ubuntu intact instead of deleting eveything

Best regards,

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  • This is what finally did it. I had to re-install windows after Ubuntu, though, which is strange, but everything seems to be working properly. Thanks for the help.
    – Thom
    Mar 7, 2012 at 15:56
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You should have used testdisk to restore your old partition, but since it looks like it's already been reformatted, that idea goes out the window.

This probably has to do with the fact that Windows is being installed on an extended partition. By default it'd be in a primary partition. What you could try doing is deleting the partition called /dev/sdb7 and resize "extended" to just fit just the Linux partitions. That should leave you with

/dev/sda1 = ntfs Freespace /dev/sda2 = extended /dev/sda5 = linux-swap /dev/sda6 = ext4

Then try installing Windows again using the free space as its partition.

If that doesn't work, do this:

  • Delete all partitions (either from Windows partitioner or Gparted from LiveCD).
  • Install Windows 7 like usual, but leave some space for Ubuntu.
  • Install Ubuntu from a LiveCD or LiveUSB.

This is kind of a last-resort type answer, but I think it'll save you a lot of headache if you do so.

Since it seems like your computer is pretty fresh (not a lot of backups needed, if any) I'd do this. If you do have anything you'd like to backup, be sure you do so before doing this.

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If you want to completely remove Ubuntu and restore Windows as your OS, I would simply delete /dev/sda2 altogether and create an NTFS partition to fill up the remaining space on the drive.

If you still want a dual-boot system, create the NTFS partition for Windows and, but leave some unallocated space after for Ubuntu to install itself in.

Restore Windows to the NTFS partition, and then you will be free to install Ubuntu afterwards if you choose to do so.

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