Problem Selecting Partition to Install

Question

I am trying to install Ubuntu 11.10 alongside Windows XP. When I am prompted where I want to install Ubuntu, the three options to select from are:

1. Install Ubuntu alongside Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
2. Overwrite Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition with Ubuntu
3. Something else

When I selection option 1, by default Ubuntu Installer selects the 1TB external hard drive that I have connected to the computer. There appears to be an option to select another hard drive, however, I cannot use it to change to another drive. In other words, the drop down list does not work.

What I want to be able to do is to install Ubuntu on another (internal) 320GB hard drive that I have purchased for this very reason. My problem here is that I am not certain how to partition it for Ubuntu using option 3. I know that I will require a / partition and a /boot partition, however, I am not sure how much to allocate to each. Furthermore, there appears to be more file systems to select from. Which one do I use for each partition I create? Also, the intended target drive is currently formatted with NTFS. Do I need to manually delete and re-create the partition to ext2 before I am able to install Ubuntu?

FYI - My current configuration is as follows:

/dev/sda
  /dev/sda1   fat16    32MB
  /dev/sda2   ntfs    160GB
/dev/sdb
  /dev/sdb1   ntfs    320GB
/dev/sdc
  /dev/sdc5   fat32  1000GB

Note that the /dev/sda1 is the partition reserved for EISA (whatever that is), /dev/sda2 is the partition that contains the Windows XP Home Edition, /dev/sdb1 is the new internal hard drive that I intend to install Ubuntu, and /dev/sdc5 is the external drive which is used as a backup drive only. For some reason, Windows XP uses this external drive to store temporary/configuration files for software that is installed on /dev/sd2.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

Solution

I found Illustrated Dual Boot guide to Installing Ubuntu in Hard Disk Two quite informative, and it helped me set up a dual boot on two separate drives on my main PC.

It references 10.10 but the steps are no different for 11.10.

Comments

[Bill]

Isn't gedit a text editor? If so, what file should I be modifying?

[daniel kullmann]

I guess he meant gparted, the partition editor.

[Theo Scholiadis]

He meant gparted. You must select your drive and delete the partition, otherwise it won't let you install Ubuntu on it unless it's how Ubuntu likes it (the option 3 above).

[Bill]

Thanks for that Daniel, Theo. I am currently looking at the documentation on how to do this.

[Bill]

@Exeleration-G - Thanks for your help Exeleration-G but, even deleting the partition using GPartEd still results in the Ubuntu Installer selecting the external drive for installation. And, using option 3 still requires manually creating a root and boot partition.

[Bill]

Thanks for that. I am currently installing Ubuntu on my system. Mind you, I had a few minor hiccups, like not being able to unmount the ntfs file system, but I overcame this by rebooting the system, and selecting the second option of installing Ubuntu. I'll let you know how I go.

[Bill]

Installation completed successfully! Once again, thank you for your support. Sincerely.

[Exeleration-G]

Indeed, gedit is the text editor, I was mistaking, thanks for the correction. I don't know why Ubuntu chose your external drive. But I see that your problem is solved, so that is all OK.