I have two hard drives. On one hard drive I have Vista. I would like to install Ubuntu 9.02 on the other one. I have made several attempts to do so. During the installation process I did not know how to control where Ubuntu would be installed. I really need to be walked through this, step by step. I am attaching a digital image of the step where I did not know how to proceed. Please forgive me for the low quality of the image.

Thanks in advance

You need to select a mount point somewhere in the setup. You will be given options such as /usr/, /var/ etc. Select the one with the root symbol: /

You then need to format it and you should be also given that option. Your image shows the unallocated space highlighted which would be right. If I read your image correctly, you have one ntfs partition on the first drive, sda1 and another ntfs on the second, hdb1. Don't install to either of these as they are your windows drives. Further on in the installation, you will be given options as to where to install Grub bootloader. You should install to the master boot record and the bootloader should detect windows and create an entry in the menu.lst file to boot windows automatically.

If you need more detail, post again.

The above will install Grub bootloader to the first hard drive. Actually, I don't know what your intentions are. Is the drive you plan to install Ubuntu to an external? Do you intent to have this drive connected permanently? If not, that would change things.

Thanks for your informative reply.
My first hard drive has Vista on it.
My second HD has a partition that I use for digital images.
Both HDs will remain connected permanently.
Are you saying that the Grub bootloader should be installed in my first HD, the one in which I have installed Vista? If you don't mind, I will upload images of the steps that I do not understand.

Thanks

I selected this mount point / then went to the next step. I do not know what to do.

You should create a swap partition as well. Swap is something like windows virtual memory.

Anyway, from the start:
- at the partitioning stage, select "custom"
- select the drive to install to
- if it already contains one or more partitions, delete enough of them so you can install Ubuntu (note that deleting a partition erases all data it contains)
- then add partitions: one of 2048MB, one of 10240MB (or a few thousand more if you prefer), one that takes up the rest of the free space. For each added partition, you'll need to indicate filesystem (choose swap for swap, ext3 or ext4 for the other two) as well as mount point (none for the swap partition, / for the second partition, /home for the third one).
That should be it. As long as you don't press "continue" (or is it "next"?), you can still make edits to your selected drive layout (delete, edit or add partitions).

Thanks Jaye, but I am ashamed to say it, but I am confused.
There is plenty of free space in my second HD for Ubuntu.
When I went to install it, I chose manual. I still do not know how to create a swap file.

Just select "add partition", choose filetype "swap", no mount point (that option should be deselected automatically once you select swap for the filesystem). Then you do the other partitions.

Jaye this is my previous window. What should I have done?

If there aren't any other partitions on the drive, select "Primary", size 2048, use as swap. Then for the other two:
- Primary, 10240 (=10GB) or more (15360 is 15GB, which is what I use but then not everyone needs that much) , use as ext3, mount point /
- Primary, rest of space, use as ext3, mount point /home

The last screen will install GRUB. You should go with the default if you do not mind having it installed to the first drive (if you do, you'll need to think of another way to boot Ubuntu because it won't boot at all if there isn't any bootloader (GRUB or another one) on the first drive).

There is one other partition on the drive. So what should I select?

Then select "logical' instead of primary, Linux does not mind being installed to a logical partition (unlike windows). If the installer objects, it's probably because the partition you already have is logical too. Then you can use primary instead.

Jaye Help!

I installed Ubuntu, everything went well. When I tried to go to Ubuntu, It said that I typed the wrong password. HELP

Well, maybe you did? Are you sure you are using the exact same password that you entered during install?

If nothing helps, have a look at this:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword

Maybe I typed it wrong, but I do not think so.

Also, I am not sure which HD the Ubuntu installed to.
Any suggestions would be appreciated

Which drive? That shouldn't matter but you can find out from either Ubuntu or Linux. So have you been able to log in?