Hello all. I installed linux ubuntu for the first time yesterday. Before installing the linux OS on my computer I added a second hard drive that showed up on my computer as local disc(f). My intentions were to boot linux from this drive only. After installing the OS the second hard drive stopped showing up in my computer. The new OS booted fine a few times,so I did the updates. After all the updates were finished I cranked up the monitor resolution. Now when I boot linux the boot screen appears but after that the screen go blank. Can someone direct me on how to fix this problem

The second hard drive stopped showing up in Windows because, once you installed Ubuntu, it became a foreign drive with a filesystem that Windows doesn't recognize/tolerate/care about.

You don't mention which version of Ubuntu you installed or what video card (if any) you're using, so with what you've said I can only surmise that either:
1. You set the monitor resolution higher than the monitor was designed to go with that refresh rate (the "out of range" error), or
2. Your drivers and/or Xorg were updated and are now incompatible with your video hardware.
In either case the boot screen will show up because it's set to display at a certain resolution at install regardless what the monitor is set to. You'll have to edit your xorg.conf by starting in runlevel 3/single-user mode to bring the settings back into spec. Barring that, you may have to roll the video driver back.

Hello,thank you for the quick response. The version of ubuntu I installed is 8.0.4.1 Kernel 2.6.24-22-generic. The video card I run is a Radeon X1300 series. Would you be able to tell me how to edit my xorg.conf? Ive started in runlevel 3/single-user mode but I don't know what to do to bring the settings back into spec. Also do I roll the video driver back in my windows OS? Would wiping my added hard drive and starting over be a better option to keeping my new hard drive were Windows will recognize it? Thank you so much for all your help.

1. The easiest way to reset video mode is to reinstall ubuntu.
2. You must always backup a file before editing it.
3. Harder way: Run the ubuntu disk as a live cd.
Do the following with the live cd.

fdisk -l #Determine which /dev/sd??? your root directory is on
mkdir /myhdd
mount /dev/sd??? /myhdd #mount the hard drive from the ram disk
cd /myhdd/etc/X11/
ls
#Since you edited xorg.conf, you might have xorg.conf~
mv xorg.conf~ xorg.conf
#That should solve your video issue.
#If not...
vim (or any text editor you want) xorg.conf
#edit the xorg.conf back to original settings.

4. Do not erase your second harddrive.
How is your second hdd formatted?
fdisk -l will show how it is formatted.
If it ntfs you will need the ntfs-3g and fuse programs.

[edit] You can also copy the xorg.conf from your ramdisk from the livecd to your harddrive.
cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /myhdd/etc/X11/xorg.conf [/edit]

Let me know how things work out.

Windows is not going to recognise that drive if you use it to install linux and use the entire drive. While Linux can access Windows partitions, Windows cannot access Linux partitions. There are a few programs that will allow access to Linux filesystems from within Windows, but I have not used them and cannot comment on the reliability or safety of such programs.

You shouldn't have to do anything with your drivers in Windows, Linux hasn't touched them, nor does it use the Windows drivers.

One question is what size is the 2nd hard drive you got? Do you know what a partition is? If you still want to use that drive in Windows, you can. Say the new drive is 160 GB. When you install Linux, you can tell it to, for example, take 58 GB for the / partition and 2 GB for the swap partition. That would mean Linux is using 60 GB of that drive. In Windows, that drive would show up (as long as you format the partition) as a 100 GB F drive. Windows can use the 100 GB while Linux is stored in 60 GB that Windows cannot see.

When and if you do reinstall Ubunutu, make sure you enable the drivers for your video card. You can go to System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers to enable any proprietary drivers that Ubuntu finds for your hardware.

Good Luck.

Please use descriptive thread titles in future (i.e. ones that say something about the problem you're having). You are told to do this when you post a thread, so there's no real excuse for using a bad title like "help me".