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http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2015/11/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-alongside_8.html

I've been using this guide to try and install Ubuntu onto my computer. It was a Windows 7 machine with a standard BIOS and was later upgraded to Windows 10.

I've gotten pretty far into it. I shrunk my C: partition to allocate 48GB towards the install (there's no other partitions on the HDD, and this 48GB now shows as unallocated). Made the USB stick to boot into Ubuntu, try to start up the installation process and... there's no option to install alongside Windows 10.

When I select 'Something else', I see that there is ~50GB labeled as 'unusable'. I'm not sure if this is the partition I made. There's an sda1 and sda2, for Windows Recovery and the Windows loader, respectively. sda3 which appears to be the entire HDD for my personal files, and an sda4 which also shows up in Windows as a recovery partition. This is alongside the ~50GB unusable. Windows says it's all dynamic, if that helps. I tried to see if I could just make a simple volume out of that 48GB but every option I tried just says that there's not enough space available on the disk to perform that option.

I'm not sure what else to do here. I read about disabling fast boot and hibernation but from what I've seen those appear to be UEFI-type options, and as aforementioned this is just a standard BIOS laptop.

Any suggestions? I am unfamiliar with Ubuntu and installing any type of OS in general, so apologies if I missed an obvious step.

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Your dynamic partitions are the first problem, they need to be "basic" for the Ubuntu installer to see them. Search around for ways to convert/recreate them, which has nothing to do with Ubuntu.

Next problem is a likely MBR partitioned disk, with a max of four primary partitions (your dynamic partitions get around this but basic wont. You need to make one of the primaries an extended, which should have all the free space, so the Ubuntu installer can make logical partitions as needed (root and swap probably all you need).

Then you're ready for the Ubuntu install, which is the standard legacy install, except the installer can boot both UEFI and legacy -- only a problem if your machine can boot both, and it decides to boot UEFI. You need to ensure the BIOS is set to boot legacy only or legacy before UEFI in that case.

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  • Thank you so much!! I managed to figure it out. I goofed up 'cause the drives were actually basic, not dynamic, so that was one step already done. I only needed to look up how to remove the recovery drives by other means, have the C drive extend to those and then I was able to select the option to install alongside Windows 10. Unfortunately, one of those recovery partitions was at the front and apparently it's nearly impossible to extend a primary drive to that space, but oh well. Thanks for the pointers!
    – Kohtin
    Jul 4, 2016 at 17:37

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