dual-bootgptsystem-installationuefiwindows 8
I have a laptop with UEFI (secure boot disabled) with Windows 8.
I am trying to install Ubuntu 12.10 or 12.04 along side Windows 8 on my primary hard drive, which uses GPT. I am only presented with the option to erase the disk and install so the install alongside windows option does not appear.
How can I install Ubuntu without erase my Windows system?
There's no such thing as a "GPT partition" in quite the sense that you seem to be suggesting. The GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a partition table -- that is, it's a data structure that defines partitions. The entire disk must be either GPT or something else, such as the older Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table. Thus, deleting the GPT data would delete all the partitions on the disk, which you probably don't want to do.
That said, some disks are actually MBR disks but they have leftover GPT data from an earlier partitioning of the disk. This situation can cause parted, GParted, the Ubuntu installer, and some other tools to mistakenly believe that the disk is empty. The FixParts program that you mentioned can detect and correct this problem. I don't believe this is your problem, though; computers that ship with Windows 8 almost always use GPT, so unless you re-installed Windows using MBR, your disk should legitimately be GPT. You can test this by running FixParts on the disk; if it terminates with a message to the effect that the disk is a GPT disk, then that's what it is.
I haven't researched the issue in detail, but the Ubuntu installer seems to have a bug that causes it to not provide the "install alongside" option for many computers that ship with Windows 8 pre-installed. I suspect that this is the issue you're seeing. Unfortunately, the only solution I know of is to use the "something else" option. Note that you'll almost certainly need to correctly identify your EFI System Partition (ESP) to the installer. It's a FAT32 partition, typically 100-1000MB in size, and you tell the installer to use it as an "EFI boot partition." (Why the developers chose too change "system" to "boot" is beyond me. Such changes just create confusion; but I digress....)
Go to the option 'Something else' .you'll get the partition table.Select the partition you want to install.
Then set the filetype to ext4.Select the format checkbox.Select root '/' as mount point.
Next before installation go to "device for boot loader installation"(see the image) and select the partition you've created just before.then press 'install now'.
After booting with live usb/cd ,Run following command in terminal,
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair
provided: boot repair
I hope this will help.
Best Answer
It is possible that the Ubuntu installer is not recognizing Windows 8 because of GPT partitions. Below are some links that helped me.
Links:
Why is Windows 8 invisible on Ubuntu 12.10's installer?
Zapping GPT Data Structures
Note: The second link asks for gdisk. I was unable to download gdisk via terminal. I had to go through firefox and get the .deb file, which took me to ubuntu's software center. Here is the link to get the .deb file: GPT fdisk gdisk
Hope this helps!