Ok, so hello everyone- I have been trying to download Ububntu 16.04 LTS on my HP Pavilion 15 laptop according to the details in my Ubuntu's about system- I only have 3.8 GiB of memory, and 2.0 GB of disk- Running a intel celeron processor- N2920 @ 1.86 GHZ X 4, and 64 Bit system...so to my problem- My HDD in internal and each time I boot my laptop it would request a OS be installed...enter my brilliant idea of trying a new OS- Ubuntu. I wasn't able to use a Windows 7 start up disk- (for whatever reason the MS start up disk wouldn't recognize any driver files when it got to that point in installing), ever forward- so I borrow my neighbors laptop, download Ubuntu on a DVD (and USB), and than attempt to put it on my laptop-which I am on now- so it's safe to say I did something correctly, right, since I have the ability to try before I download it??
My issue is- Ubuntu is somehow thinking that the 8 GB Sandisk USB that I put the download on is my HDD- as it says in the gParted application and my internal HDD isn't showing anywhere except for the first screen when I turn my laptop on as it beeps at me to install an OS so when I try to install Ubuntu it says I haven't got enough memory, I only have 8.0 GB, when I need 8.5 GB but my Internal HDD is a 500 GB...and the Ubuntu software shop won't load and only shows me the apps that are installed on the "try it" portion, so IDK what to do- I am not sure I even did the ISO right... any help would be great! Right now I am going to attempt to download/burn a ISO from Mint using this laptop-here I go- I will be checking back frequently!

-LynZ

Did you specify a device for gparted to work with? If you don't, I think it assumes the first one it finds, which would be the usb drive it's running from. In Linux, the hard drive is usually /dev/sda.

Try using the command gparted /dev/sda and see what happens. Or you could just let the installer partition the drive automatically and not invoke gparted at all. That usually gives reasonable results if you only want to run one OS on your computer.

Maybe this is just a terminology problem but, you download the iso to a computer hard drive, you then use burning software to burn the iso 'as an image' to a DVD or you use separate software to put the iso on a flash drive as a bootable device. How exactly did you get Ubuntu on the flash drive, or are you just using a DVD.

When you boot, you should have the option to "Try before Installing" or to "Install".

You need that much "unallocated space" on the internal 500GB hard drive on which to install Ubuntu. You may have a lot of free space withing your windows partition(s) but that won't help. Generally, one would shrink a windows partition from Disk Management in windows and run chkdsk before trying to install another OS. You mention trying to install windows 7 but not whether you currently have any working OS on the computer? If you simply want to install Ubuntu, you should be able to select the option to Erase Disk and install.

To you get to the point with Ubuntu where you have the option Installation Type? You should select Something Else unless you want to overwrite whatever you might have on the computer and just install Ubuntu.

If you are using MBR rather than the newer EFI boot method, the link below has a detailed description of the install process for Ubuntu.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/u...all-guide.html

-Ok, so on boot I get a black screen and then I get the options to try before installing and install as OEM, and what not, when I select install it goes to the screen that informs me I only have 8.0 GB and a required 8.5 is needed- however when I go to command line before I select the try option, I enter hello and it tells me it can't find grub or something like that-and I don't have a dual OS- I have no OS...no windows or anything, my laptop is an HP Pavilion-which specs do I list?
...

I think you are confusing memory and free disk space. Ubuntu probably needs at least 8GB of space for a minimal install. It certainly doesn't need 8GB of RAM (memory). Boot the DVD again and open a terminal and run this command and post the output here: sudo fdisk -l(Lower Case Letter L in the command) That should give info on your disks/partiions.

That HP15 should take an Ubuntu install no problem... I installed Debian Jessie on it w/o issue.

fdisk should yield some good info. He obviously got at least part way through an install, thus why he's getting grub errors (it probably never installed).