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I'm trying to install Ubuntu 14.04 on my desktop I built. I am not an advanced user by any means so I just want to do the simple installation of "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows" but when I do I get the error "partition length of 5599212891 sectors exceeds the msdos-partition-table-imposed maximum of 4294967295" which I've looked around and it's the size is the problem so I then went to the option of "Something Else" and I'm not knowledgeable enough as to what types of partitions to make and how large to make them or anything. I'm looking for some help because I really want to have my desktop have both Windows and Ubuntu.

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  • Is this drive over 2TiB? And did you install Windows in BIOS mode which only installs to MBR partitioned drives? To use a drive over 2TiB you must use gpt partitioning and install Windows and Ubuntu in UEFI boot mode.
    – oldfred
    Jul 10, 2014 at 4:10

3 Answers 3

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See the answer in this post that may help you to partition you drive and set partition for Ubuntu How to use manual partitioning during installation?

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You could try using GParted to remove the MBR completely. Then, replace the MBR with a another partition table. I would suggest using GPT, as it has a capacity of 2^64-1 sectors. Please note, wiping your partition table will also wipe everything on your hard drive.

If you want to do this, you must first backup anything important to another location (such as an online storage service or another hard drive). Then, open GParted, and select your device in the upper right corner (it should be /dev/something). In the Device menu, select Create Partition Table. In the drop-down menu, select GPT. Then, create your partitions, Select the Apply All Operations button from the Edit Menu, and begin installing Ubuntu.

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I haven't done a Windows 8 Ubuntu dual boot before, but I've done several Windows 7 Ubuntu dual boots. I can't help you with the UEFI aspects of the boot, but maybe you can take some info from my usual partition scheme and apply it with UEFI specific boot solutions:

When dual booting I usually have (in an Extended partition, each partition is Logical, and at the beginning of the space):

500 Mb /boot partition ext4 (I install grub to this location)

~30 GB / partition ext4

??? GB /home partition ext4 (this is any size you want it -- it's where your files are going to live. Take advantage of your large harddrive. Think how much space you will likely need at max for your files.)

3-4 GB swap partition "swap area" or "linux swap" type.

I format every partition but swap and install. Be sure to install grub to the /boot partition or else it will install to your MBR! Which is fine if you know how to get Windows booting with your grub in the MBR, but I usually install a utility such as EasyBCD (free) to my Windows OS, and use that to configure the MBR boot manager.

I imagine you can do something similar with UEFI ... point your windows boot manager to the /boot partition and boot up linux. It calls grub, so you have 2 layers of boot menus basically, but I'm fine with that. I find it feels safer to install grub to a separate partition, as it's a lot easier to get Linux to boot from a Windows bootmanager than Windows to boot from a Linux boot manager, at least for me. Usually your Windows partition will also already have all your files and data you don't want to lose, in this scheme you are sure that if everything fails you will still have a bootable, working Windows install.

Of course, this all worked for Win7/Linux dual boots, but the main partition scheme (/ , /home , swap) should be universal. There are many ways of partitioning your system, this is the scheme I find has worked best for me.

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