Why does Ubuntu 13.10 not detect my Win7 partition?

I'm trying to install Ubuntu 13.10 alongside Windows 7 on my DELL INSPIRON 14z 5423 laptop and I'm new to all of this.

I'm using the Ubuntu 13.10 64-bit ISO burned onto a CD.

The first time I tried to install it, Ubuntu said it did not detect any other OS, which meant I only had 4 options:

• Erase disk and install Ubuntu (I don't want to do this)
• Encrypt new Ubuntu.
• Use LVM.
• Something else.

If I choose the Something else option, it brings me to the partition menu and says that I have 1 disk with free space of (500Gb), but that's not true because I have Windows 7.

I restarted the laptop several times and booted the CD again and I got exactly the same as I did previously.

How do fix this problem and install Ubuntu alongside Windows 7?

After executing "sudo fdisk -l" command in terminal

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd2b811c5

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848   314574847   157184000    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       314574848   629147647   157286400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4       629147648   976771071   173811712    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

After removing one partition I executed command once again

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd2b811c5

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848   629145599   314469376    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       629147648   976771071   173811712    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

I have WIN7 home perimum os it shows local drive as

Solution 1:

If you want to install Ubuntu 13.10, try the live version, go through the installation steps and install Ubuntu. If you have Windows on your machine, it will recognize your Windows system and save its bootloader. I've done the same way on my desktop and my laptop and it went well. I had Windows 7 on both machines.