[SOLVED] Is it safe to instl Z even though disk won't mount?

Hello
Having a bit of a problem. Been trying to install Ubuntu on a brand new laptop, as a dual boot alongside the already installed Windows 10, and got as far as trying it out from a live USB stick, and everything works fine except that it won't mount any of the hard disk partitions.
When I try, it says this:

Code:

Error mounting /dev/sda1 at /media/zorin/DATA: Command-line `mount -t "ntfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=999,gid=999" "/dev/sda1" "/media/zorin/DATA"' exited with non-zero exit status 14: The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0). Metadata kept in Windows cache, refused to mount. Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Operation not permitted
The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown Windows fully (no hibernation or fast restarting), or mount the volume read-only with the 'ro' mount option. .


According to what I found on a search, it's due to a bug where Windows messes up the disk for Linux somehow while saving "hibernation" data.
I only use Windows once in a blue moon but I like to keep it around for those occasions when something I need to run, usually Skype, decides it doesn't want to play with Linux today.
The trouble is, for complicated reasons that can be summed up as related to "accessibility", I haven't been able to set up Windows yet and so can't switch off "hibernation", and I also can't get anyone else to do it for me.
Is it safe to just go ahead and install Ubuntu, despite this? It won't mess up my Windows installation or anything? If I could do that, I could just use Ubuntu and worry about Windows later!
Any advice much appreciated, please.

Hi
out friends of Mint have a good beginner's guide on the install of linux alongside windows 10

Code:

https://itsfoss.com/guide-install-linux-mint-16-dual-boot-windows/

on Zorin blog you also find a manual together with detailed info under section 'installation' on this forum.

suggest you start from scratch after salving your personal data
+++

Thanks for the effort, but like I said before, I have a specific problem. I haven't been able to SET UP Windows yet. Therefore I can't follow the steps in that article because I can't use Windows. (It's installed but is just at the setting-up-an-account stage.) I remember last time I installed Zorin, it had a wizard of sorts which arranged the partitions and everything for you, you could select whether you wanted to get rid of the existing operating system or to create a new partition and dual-boot. I had no trouble at all with that.
My question is, (assuming it's still like that in the latest vsersion of Zorin), is it safe to just do that, ignoring the way it's refusing to mount the existing partitions? I mena, it doesn't need to mount them to split off a new one, right - in fact, I think they HAVE to be unmounted to do that?
And yes, by the way, it is Zorin I'm trying to install, despite saying Ubuntu in the original posting. I was copying and pasting in a hurry from one of the many other placs I've tried to ask this question. Sorry. IT's Zorin 12.4 Lite I'm trying to install, to be precise.

Hi, I think the best thing for you to do is to complete your Windows installation first. That said, even when that is done, a Notebook was purchased for a member of the family at University and CSM (Computer System Management) is greyed out - not even legacy is present in the BIOS so if that is the case with your new Notebook you won't have much of a chance unless you have a hybrid rig that comes with an SSD (for Windows and Apps) and HDD (for Data). I would advise checking your BIOS first to see if anything other than Windows can be installed.

I can't do it. It should be all right abuot the other thing you mention, though - I've seen plenty of references on the Internet to people having successfully installed Linux dual-boot on this line of laptop (HP Pavilion), and even HP support website have advised some people on how to do it. So in theory it should work fine, if only I can get around this hibernation problem. This is a long shot, given that this is by definition a bad place to ak, btu does anyone know if it's possible to set up Windows 10 in a normal, manual way, without going through Cortana? IF only I could do that, I think I'd be OK!

You should have the option to mute Cortana from the get go - look for the mute button. The Hibernation mode is to do with the Advanced Power Settings which you have to unhide to turn off.

I don't mean mute - my laptop does have a mute button, which is very useful of it - I mean can you avoid going through the kind of computer game of silly messages and baby talk, or can you only set up the computer by following the pantomime to the end?
How do you unhide the Advanced Power Settings? Trust Windows to hide away anything you really want to stop you using it.

Hi

as always it would have been nice to obtain the specifictions of the HP together with the reference to understand the core of the issue.
from what I guess you have 2 SSD's or SSD+HD in the machine.
can you easily open the case and remove on of them?
I would buy a new SSD of 128 or 250 MB at an affordable price (no samsung please)

as Swarfendor437 said you should install Windows first. If you opt for version 10 take format NFS you can get a free registration number with ease by Google search. after you install linux and settle for alongside windows

on testing for next Zorin version I have done all possible back and forward installs on my SSD using Zorin and different window versions under single or dual boot. they work without undue hassle. on advanced settings a paper can be found in Microsoft docs.

+++

Your laptop might not have a 'mute' button, but there should be an on-screen option (bottom right?) to click on to mute you then agree to disagree with Microsoft that you don't want Cortana running at installation or any other time - been a few weeks since i updated some Windows 7 rigs at work. You then say No or select minimum for any of the options that then come up. Once you have Windows installed we will then need a screen shot of your hard disks, using Disk Management within windows, then use 'snipping tool' to take a screen shot of same and save as .jpg and upload here.

You can't get to the Power Settings until you have installed Windows.

Look here, I'm grateful to you both for your help but I'm gettting a bit frustrated with the way neither of you seem to be reading half of what I say. Please look properly and it would save an awful lot of time.

As I said, my laptop DOES have a mute button. (If it didn't, waiting until it had finished loading sufficiently to reveal the on-screen option and then clicking that would be much too late, I'd be beyond anything but lying down and crying by then - my sensory issues really are BAD at the moment.) It is not just the sound that causes me problems about setting up via Cortana's system, although that certainly would, in spades, it's other things too.

Zorinantwerp, the computer's an HP Pavilion 16-cw0994na, although as I say I think it's Windows 10's fault rather than anything peculiar to this machine. I don't know the specs myself, it has no printed manual (really HP, would it have killed you?) and I can't get at the digital one because it's in Windows! But you can probably find out from that, easier than I can myself. (Using the computer is pretty hard work for me at the moment, since there's a limit to how much I can adjust the settings the way I need them while it's running off the live USB stick).

Why on EArth wouuld I want to remove the brand new disk from my brand new laptop and fit another, a thing which I've never tried to do to a laptop anyway and have always been told shouldn't be attempted unless you really know what you're doing? What do you have in mind? The laptop''s one of the particularly thin kind, too.

Unless I'm misunderstanding (your English is a bit hard to follow) you seem to be suggesting that I should install a pirate copy of Widnows! Why? I have enough problems already, and I have Windows already. It's not that I'm INSTALLING Windows, it's already installed, it came with the laptop, it just isn't set up yet.

"You then agree to disagree with Mikcrosoft" - WHAT do I look for and click on exacctly and WHERE on the screen/menus do I look for it? I don't want to go into all the shameful details of my condition and I'm sure you don't want me to either, but this is an extremely painful and stressful operation for me and I'll be barely capabel of coherent thought by the time I've been working on it for a minte or two, so directions of the "have a rootle around for so and so" type will not work, Sorry. I've got to put my head in the lion's mouth here, and need clear and unmistakable instructions or nothing.

Sorry, do your best with this gibberish.

I think because of the issues you are having I would be tempted to go back to where you purchased the notebook from and let them set it up for you, explain that you don't want Cortana or any of its associated services running during setup or afterwards.

So would I.

wombat140 wrote:So would I.

Evening, Wombat,
Edited--Windows 10 has a "Fast Startup" feature which saves metadata about the state of all partitions to a file during shutdown. A brilliant feature M.S. Introduced... As this information about the NTFS partition is stored in Windows 10, this prevents Zorin from mounting as that would change the metadata stored there. If you were installing alongside Windows 7, you wouldn't have seen that error.
The best solution to this is to disable "Fast Startup" in Windows. Sadly, this would require you to access the Control Panel in Windows 10 (the path is Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > System Setting > Choose what the power buttons do, then Uncheck the box for Fast Startup).
This is why Zorinantwerp and Swarfendor suggested completing the Windows Installation, first.
I think --THINK...-- if you startup Windows 10 and then do a Restart instead of a Shutdown, then that will release the partition metadata from the stored system information since Fast Startup is not required from a restart. Would that be enough to get Zorin installed? I'd like to bounce that idea off Zorinantwerp and Swarfendor.--end Edit
I am new to Linux via Zorin, myself. Quite recently. I never used Windows 10 ( and I never will).
Zorinantwerp (English is not his first language) was not suggesting a Pirated copy. The windows install you have currently you already paid for when you purchased the computer. M.S. offers the "free" upgrade to 10 still - the "free" registration is part of that whole deal along with M.S. doing away with Product Keys entirely.
I am a Car mechanic - I can tell you that 9 times out of 10, I end up telling a person, "I need to see the car" when they ask for troubleshooting help on one. It is Phenomenally difficult to narrow down a problem Long Distance. It's easier with computers, but not by much. In one case with a Ford Mustang, the symptoms as described seemed to be an Automatic Transmission solenoid problem. But when I looked at it, the trouble was due to a faulty electric window switch in the door. I only noticed it because it had over-heated the switch enough to melt part of it. The unusual electrical draw had confused the cars computer. So, Swarfendor's suggestion of getting assistance from the store that you bought the laptop new from may be a good bet.
Maybe that is not your best First bet; in which case, hopefully folks here can help.
I also considered dual booting my system since I was used to Windows and totally new to Linux and would miss programs that only operate on Windows. In the end, I just went full Zorin.
Now, I have no regrets. I never even use Wine. Skype can be operated pretty painlessly using the Franz application you can download, as well.
I am not an expert- and please cross reference anything I have said against Zorinantwerp and Swarfendor.

Thanks very much!
In the end, I just decided to risk it and install Zorin, and Zorin installed just fine - apparently it's happy to repartition a hibernated disk, just not mount it. I've still not attemoted to get Windows wworking! As a matter of fact, I haven't even attempted to boot it since installing Zorin. I suspect it should be fine, though, in fact - the computer has two drives, an SSD and a hard drive, with Windows on the SSD, and to be safe I installed Zorin on the hard drive. Zorin still refuses to mount anything but its own partition, but since its partition is almost 500GB, I'm not worrying about that just now!
If and when I feel up to/have ny ned to use Windows or get access to the remaining parts of the disks, I'll try and make use of Aravisian's advice.