Partitioning problems-Ubuntu 8.04 on Acer Aspire 5000


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I got this laptop off eBay and it runs great. But when trying to install 7.10 a few weeks ago, I got a message that it couldn't do the resize partition for dual boot installs because the HD had bad sectors. Some drive tests confirmed that. Fortunately, the drive was under warranty from Hitachi still, so I got it replaced for free.

So, I get the new drive in, install it, restore my Windows disk image and then try to do the Ubuntu 8.04 install. I get the same problem. Now, I haven't had time to run a drive test on it again, but I find this highly suspicious. Has anyone experienced this before? Is there a work around like reformatting the drive, partitioning it ahead of time, then restoring my Windows install to one partition and putting Ubuntu on the other?

Feel free to dumb down your comments. I'm just now experimenting with Ubuntu so I'm quite unfamiliar with the quirks or hoops one might have to jump through that come easy to more experienced folks.

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... I got a message that ... the HD had bad sectors. Some drive tests confirmed that.

...

So, I get the new drive in, install it, restore my Windows disk image and then try to do the Ubuntu 8.04 install. I get the same problem. Now, I haven't had time to run a drive test on it again, but I find this highly suspicious. ...

Yes, it is odd that a new replacement would also have bad sectors. But the first time it complained, a manufacturer's diagnostic showed there really was an issue. Why not check this drive, too? :ermm:

If the diagnostic comes back clean, boot into Windows and perform a "check disk", specifically a chkdsk /r to "repair" any problems Windows finds.

Once that is done, I also personally recommend a defrag, to try to push your data to the "front" of the drive space, leaving unused space when you 'shrink' your current partition as part of the install. You can also try an install using "wubi" which allows you to install onto your NTFS partition without needing to alter partition structure at all. I think that this is in the newer 8.04 release, which I would recommend you try over the 7.10.

I hope this helps.

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Yeah, I'll definitely run another test on it to be sure, but it started making me think Ubuntu might have some kind of issue with the drive or the drive controller or something.

That said, explain this "wubi" thing to me. I'm a total n00b with Linux installs.

EDIT: Actually, I looked up wubi and see that it makes the install easier. Is running Ubuntu this way slower like an emulation or something or is this just a different way to run it natively and keep your Windows install intact?

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Running with wubi is only impreceptably slower. It may not even really be measurable. It is a "real" install, and code runs directly, just as in a traditional partitioned system. The biggest difference is that the Linux ext3 filesystem isn't directly on the drive, but is instead a file (sort of a loopback filesystem) that resides on an existing NTFS partition. So, technically, there are two filesystem calls: write a block > ext3 > NTFS. If you have a lot of file read/write and are pretty fragmented in your NTFS drive, then you might see some performance hits.

More information can be found on the wubi site: http://wubi-installer.org/faq.php#requirements

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