I've been trying to install Ubuntu 10.10 as a dual boot with Windows 7 on my Dell latitude e6510. It is currently running Windows 7 and I have used the MS disk tools to shrink the Win 7 NTFS partition to make room for Linux.

The issue I'm having is that when I run Ubuntus installer by booting from CD it sees the entire hard drive as unallocated space.

I have also tried Kbuntu 10.10, Fedora 14, booting a Gparted 0.8.0 usb drive, and Ubuntu "install in Windows" with wubi they all have problems.

EDIT:

When I run the "try Ubuntu" option on booting from cd it can mount my Windows partition and I can view the files.

The output of sudo parted -l when running in try Ubuntu mode:

Warning: /dev/sda contains GPT signatures, indicating that it has a GPT table.
However, it does not have a valid fake msdos partition table, as it should.
Perhaps it was corrupted -- possibly by a program that doesn't understand GPT
partition tables.  Or perhaps you deleted the GPT table, and are now using an
msdos partition table.  Is this a GPT partition table?


Yes/No? yes
Model: ATA ST9500420AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start  End  Size  File system  Name  Flags




Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system).  /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.


Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label