Hello and thank you in advance
I want to dual boot with windows 10 and ubuntu 14.04 but I am unable to read the partitions I created in windows. It does not give me the option to install alongside windows. a little bit of additional information; I don't have internet access in ubuntu so I can't install any outside programs.
How many windows partitions do you have? Many OEM (retail bought) machines will limit the number of partitions a drive can have. The only time I've experienced this it's been limited to 4 partitions, but your mileage may vary.
Grab a copy of the Ubuntu bootable iso, then burn it on to a disc. Check and see if the UEFI is on by restarting your computer and heading to the bios settings. Depending on your computer entering the bios settings can vary on the function keys (mine is F10).
You have 2 options on installing:
In windows head to Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management. Shrink your Windows volume and create a new partition for the new install. Name it something like 'Linux' or equivalent (Remember the partition size).
Put the disc in the machine and restart your computer. Make sure your bios settings is reading the disc on bootup first.
Follow the setup and install on the new partition you created in Windows.
Your windows partition should mount quite easily when you're on the Ubuntu desktop to access your files.
I recently Multi-booted a Windows 10 machine with UEFI by completely turning the UEFI off. I still have the Windows partition, and if I need to use Windows I just turn the UEFI back on in the bios when I start the computer, which in turn auto-boots into Windows.
