How do I install Ubuntu on /dev/sda and not /dev/sdb?

Question

I am trying to dual boot Ubuntu 12.04 with Windows 7. The installer will only let me try to install on /dev/sdb which is my 32GB caching SSD. I have partitioned space for Ubuntu with Gparted.

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?

Thank you.

Solution

If the disk has been used in a RAID array you might need to erase the metadata. Open terminal Ctrl+Alt+T and run following command:

sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sda

See http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=12026527&postcount=2

You might also find that you need to create a partition table in GParted (Device > Create Partition Table) before the disk will be available in the Installer.

Comments

[somasekhar]

It wants to install the bootloader to sdb. I am not sure about this, but maybe sda is not in the format to install grub? I do not see why it would not install into sda5 either.

[Dan]

Yes, that's exactly what I needed!