Installing 14.1 from dvd. Setup wants to use /dev/sda I want to use /dev/sdb.

Have you partitioned /dev/sdb? Unless the drive is partitioned, it won't show up in the installer.

I formatted it to ext4. Will partition and try again.

To be sure everything is OK, before typing setup type:PS Even if the filesystem is ext4, if the type of the partition on which you want to install is of type "Microsoft basic data" or "HPFS/NTFS/exFat" for instance (this could happen if you reuse a partition formerly used by Windows) setup won't see it. Then you would have to delete that partition and to recreate one of type Linux instead (maybe just changing its type is enough).

Partitioned with Gparted and installed. Not recognized by Grub 2. "missing boot loader" when I direct hardware to boot from this drive. I did not make a USB stick or install LILO. Should I try one or both of these? Or something else?

To give you a sound answer, please tell us what other systems you need to boot (assuming that you have set up a multi-boot environment), and how do you boot them (if grub2, provide the content of grub.conf).

Also I don't understand what meansWhich commands did you attempt exactly?

hd0 contains Ubuntu
hd1 contains Slackware
hd2 is formatted FAT32 with no OS currently installed

If I set the computers hardware setup to boot only from hd1 I get the message "missing boot loader"

If I boot from cd/dvd drive containing Grub2 I get options to boot Ubuntu from hd0 or hd2 which has no operating system. There isn't even an option for hd1. I don't think I have a grub.conf file as I just use the Grub2 dvd when I need it.

Then install lilo. You can boot into your system using the install DVD: as soon as you see the initial greeting screen just type a command like:This is assuming you installed the 32-bit version and your root Slackware partition is /dev/sdb1, else adapt accordingly. If you installed the 64-bit version type huge.s instead of huge.smp.

Then when you will be in Slackware, log in as root then just type "liloconfig" and follow instructions. You can add a lilo stanza for Ubuntu using the "expert" mode, but it may be simpler to edit /etc/lilo.conf afterwards to add that stanza. After that type "lilo -t -v" to check for any error message and if all goes well just type "lilo" to update the boot sector. When running liloconfig you will be asked where to install the boot sector. I suggest to choose "MBR".

Tried this. lilo -t -v returned several warnings but no errors.

Reboot (without Grub2 or Install DVD) gives "missing boot loader"

Could a low level format help? hdparm shows the hd as frozen and I can't find out how to unfreeze.

Did you run lilo after that? lilo -t will just test your config and output verbosely. You still need to run lilo to actually update the mbr.

yes

Can you post your lilo.conf and the output of lilo -t -v?

I'm thinking you may have your boot parameter wrong.