Add Ubuntu alongside a pre-installed Windows on an HP laptop (convert primary partition to extended/logical)
Recently I wanted to install Ubuntu next to a pre-installed Windows on a brand-new HP EliteBook.
The notebook came with four primary partitions, with Windows installed on the biggest one:
- sda1 (1 GB, NTFS, label=SYSTEM)
- sda2 (457 GB, NTFS)
- sda3 (16 GB, NTFS, label=HP_RECOVERY)
- sda4 (2 GB, FAT32)
In order to install Ubuntu it's not enough to resize the Windows partition, as you cannot have more than four primary partitions. Removing one of the other partitions is a bad idea according to several reports, as it might render the system unable to start, or prevent BIOS updates. So the idea is to convert the Windows partition to a logical one in addition to resizing it. Fortunately everything you need to do that is already included on the Ubuntu installation image.
1. Use gparted to resize and move the Windows partition. I resized it to 100 GB and added 10 MB free space before it (to leave some space to create the extended partition later on). This will take a while, depending on the performance of your hard drive.
2. Use fixparts to convert sda2 to a logical partition:l then 2 , write the changes to the disk with w .
3. Restart the computer without the Ubuntu install media so that Windows fixes itself. This will take even longer than the partition resize, be patient. Restart once more to make sure the Windows install is fine.
4. Proceed with installing Ubuntu, choose the option to "install Ubuntu alongside Windows".
The notebook came with four primary partitions, with Windows installed on the biggest one:
- sda1 (1 GB, NTFS, label=SYSTEM)
- sda2 (457 GB, NTFS)
- sda3 (16 GB, NTFS, label=HP_RECOVERY)
- sda4 (2 GB, FAT32)
In order to install Ubuntu it's not enough to resize the Windows partition, as you cannot have more than four primary partitions. Removing one of the other partitions is a bad idea according to several reports, as it might render the system unable to start, or prevent BIOS updates. So the idea is to convert the Windows partition to a logical one in addition to resizing it. Fortunately everything you need to do that is already included on the Ubuntu installation image.
1. Use gparted to resize and move the Windows partition. I resized it to 100 GB and added 10 MB free space before it (to leave some space to create the extended partition later on). This will take a while, depending on the performance of your hard drive.
2. Use fixparts to convert sda2 to a logical partition:
# fixparts /dev/sdaType
3. Restart the computer without the Ubuntu install media so that Windows fixes itself. This will take even longer than the partition resize, be patient. Restart once more to make sure the Windows install is fine.
4. Proceed with installing Ubuntu, choose the option to "install Ubuntu alongside Windows".
