I have two 80G Hard Drives on my system, with XP Home on the first. I have tried twice to load Ubuntu 6.06 on 2HD following a post on the Ubuntu site for "installing Ubuntu on 2HD without touching the MBR on the first HD". On re-boot I get the Grub screen and can choose between Ubuntu or XP, but when I choose Ubuntu and it opens, I find it isn't on the first partition on the 2nd HD like I wanted. Here is what the Disk Manager shows in Ubuntu:

First HD, (only 1 Primary partition):
= /dev/hda1 74.53G (53.95 free) /tmp/disks-cont-hda1

Second, (2 Primary partitions, 1 Swap partition)
P1 = /dev/hdb1 58.59G (58.53 free) /tmp/disks-cont-hdb1
P2 = /dev/hdb2 15.25G (12.27 free) /
Swap = /dev/hdb5 698.11 MB Memory Swap

I want Ubuntu on P1 so I have it on the largest partition of almost 60G so I chose "largest continuous free space". When I installed it I set up the partitions because I wanted to use the approximately 20G for backups of my XP Home on the 1st Hard Drive. But it looks like the 20G is being used for Ubuntu. What did I do wrong (please be gentle)?

The best bet is to use manual partitioning instead of automatic. Ubuntu's partitioner is quite easy to use.

Then you can set the partitions exactly how you want.

--Ian

When you tell Ubuntu to partition and format according to your specifications it will give you a summary of what it will do and give you a chance to make more changes. If you managed to select the wrong partition it will be obvious.

I did try the manual partitioning, but got a little confused so went back to automatic. I will try again and follow through with the manual. Also, when I did get it loaded on the smaller partition I noticed there were 223 updates. Is there a CD somewhere that would have these all in one spot for faster loading (I'm on dial-up)? Thanks for the notes, I'll keep you posted. My goal is 100% Linux and MS for emergencies.

Ubuntu 6.10 has been out for months and the 223 represent all in that time. They normally don't generate new release to fold in the updates. The next release is in April and will initially not have to many updates. It takes a while but in my opinion it's well worth the wait.

Thank you for the information, I will request 6.10 just to have a copy. I ended up reinstalling 6.06 on the entire 2nd HD and will use an external drive to back up what I need to from either drive. If I wouldn't have drifted from Linux for a spell, I would have known of the new release so lesson learned! Thanks again.

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