I have Windows 10 installed on my HP laptop, and since I'm starting to do some programming, I decided I'd like to get Linux on it too by creating a partition.
I used the Windows tool to shrink C down and create 50GB of unallocated space (attached).
I downloaded Linux Mint onto a USB and booted it up, tried to install it using what I expected to find on "free space" of the unallocated portion, but it's not there! I couldn't find any free space; all I get is:
/dev/sda1 Size: 1MB Used: unknown System: Windows 10 Loader
/dev/sda2 ntfs Size: 208MB Used: unknown System: Windows Recovery Environment (loader)
/dev/sda3 ntfs Size: 682780MB Used: 12997MB System: Windows Recovery Environment (loader)
/dev/sda4 Size: 67165MB Used: unknown
I can't even see how the volumes tie up together!
Best Answer
i'm pretty sure the shrinking with windows caused your problems! at least since then your drive was converted to a "Dynamic Disk" (as you can see on your screenshot).
a long story made short: Dynamic Disks are a "microsoft-invention" to overcome some limitations of msdos-MBR (and make interaction with other OSes more complicated)...
the solution is to revert the changes (delete the new partition, etc.) and convert back to a Basic Disk. and then modify your partitions with your live-system (of course after a backup!) right before installing.
at the moment i have no time (and setups) to test and post a full tutorial, but i'm sure asking your trusted search will give you enough results...
this topic was also mentioned at the Linux Mint forum: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=116723
the conclusion for the future: everything you can achieve without windows, do without windows! because windows strictly ignores other systems, setups and so on... the easiest example is the setup: windows wipes all other OSes without a hassle...