Windows 7 sees all ubuntu partitions as primary

Question

I got a new laptop with Windows 7. I resized the windows partition and installed Ubuntu 10.10 to the free space using manual partition, with several partitions for /boot, /, /home, swap, and another to be formated as ntfs to share files with the Windows 7 boot.

All worked perfectly in the ubuntu side, but the disk management of Windows 7 sees all partitions as Primary and don't let me format the one i set aside for ntfs. I always thought that there could only be 4 primary partitions, so seeing 9 primary partions was unexpected. With all my previous computers this worked fine and i could use both systems to access the common data partition.

There is a screenshot of Windows 7 Disk Management:

What should i do to fix this so i can format this common data to ntfs from Windows, failing that how to format a partition as ntfs from linux ( i expect that to be more risky that from windows)

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Edit: This is the output of fdisk -l

Disco /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 cabezas, 63 sectores/pista, 38913 cilindros
Unidades = cilindros de 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Tamaño de sector (lógico / físico): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Tamaño E/S (mínimo/óptimo): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Identificador de disco: 0x949ef5d2

Dispositivo Inicio    Comienzo      Fin      Bloques  Id  Sistema
/dev/sda1               1           5       40131   de  Utilidad Dell
/dev/sda2   *           6        1918    15360000    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3            1918        8258    50931829+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4            8259       38914   246238209    5  Extendida
/dev/sda5            8259        8271       97280   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           36969       38914    15624192   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7            8271       14350    48827392   83  Linux
/dev/sda8           14350       16781    19529728   83  Linux
/dev/sda9           33321       36969    29296640   83  Linux
/dev/sda10          16781       33320   132852736   83  Linux

Las entradas de la tabla de particiones no están en el orden del disco

The partition 10 that I wanted in ntfs appeared as of linux type, even when in the installer i didn't select that. I tried changing that to ntfs with the Disk Utility and it stalled changing it. Installed GParted but every time i run it crash with

glibmm-ERROR **: 
unhandled exception (type std::exception) in signal handler:
what: basic_string::_S_create

Finally changed the type with fdisk to 0x07. The output of fdisk changed only in this line

/dev/sda10          16781       33320   132852736    7  HPFS/NTFS

Now Windows 7 shows this partition and only this partition as being inside an extended partition. Is there a way to validated my partition table as correct before it bombs.

Answer 1

You can format the NTFS partition in Linux, if this will work on the windows side i don't know. But this command should be able to format the disk correctly:

sudo mkntfs -L "LABEL" /dev/NTFS-DISK

Where NTFS-DISK should be replaced by the right partiotion and LABEL replaced by a filsystem label of your choosing, you have to have the ntfsprogs package installed. Afaik you should then be able to (if you are a superuser/administrator) assign the partition a drive letter in Windows after formatting it.

Answer 2

To work around this Windows bug I always use the graphical partition editor gparted (not installed per default, but available on the live CD).

As always when editing partitions: Don't forget to make backups first!

Answer 3

I've always worked around this problem: Install Windows first, or install it on a separate hard drive. Simply install Ubuntu afterwards, or ensure the disk containing your Ubuntu install has the highest boot precedence in your BIOS, and rerun GRUB update-grub.