Hi Ubuntu users,

Please bear with me. I would kindly like someone to please point to a tutorial that explains how to install Ubuntu 12.04 on a second hard drive that will allow me to dual boot my current OS (Windows 2000) and Ubuntu 12.04. My current hard drive set-up is windows 2000 on the primary master and Ubuntu on the secondary slave - yes, both drives on the same IDE ribbon cable.

I checked in the system BIOS at (start up)and the system recognized both hard drives successfully.

Primary Master - Maxtor 40 gig (with Windows 2000 installed)

Primary Slave - Western Digital 80 gig (where I would like to install Ubuntu 12.04)

I did boot from the Ubuntu Live CD and began the installation process a few times but kept stopping when I arrived at the point where it asks me where I want to install the Ubuntu boot loader. The drop down box already had my 80 gig "slave" drive selected as this is where I want to install Ubuntu. I crossed my fingers and clicked install but an error box popped up that said, "No root file system is defined. Please correct this from the partitioning menu".

Not sure what this means. Do I have to create a boot partition in this second hard drive (Western Digital 80 gig)where I am installing Ubuntu?

I'm just too afraid to continue on and I purposely "quit" the install process for fear that I may corrupt the windows 2000 OS drive.

Eventually when both OS's are installed, I would like to boot the computer and see an option that gives me a choice as to which OS I would like to boot-up (if possible().

I have been at this all day (reading tutorials) and I did not notice any tutorial in particular that explained my preferred set-up in detail.

I am fairly fluent at understand partitions as my Primary Master has four partitions that I initially created. Do I have to create a boot-partition in my scondary slave drive which will be used for Ubuntu and then another partition for "swap" and then another partition for the Ubuntu OS?

Thank you kindly

It might be a good idea to post some hardware info on the computer. If it is an older computer with limited RAM you might have trouble with the latest version of Ubuntu. According to the Ubuntu site, the minimum required is 512MB and the recommended amount is 1GB.

You didn't set a mount point in the previous window. Are you selecting the "Something Else" option on the "Installation Type" page? That would be the best option in your case as you will get more control.

In the "Allocate Drive Space" window, select a partition on the drive you want to use by clicking it to highlight it then click the Edit tab in the center/bottom of the window. If you don't have a partition but have free space, click on free space to highlight it then click the Add tab. In either case you will get a new window which will allow you to set the partition size in megabytes, select the filesystem type in the Use as drop down menu (ext4), click the check box to format the partition (deletes all data on that partition), and last select a Mount point. That should be root which will be symbolized by the forward slash ( / ) and should be the first option when you click the down arrow to the far right of Mount point. This is what you apparently missed during your install to get that error.

You do not need a boot partition. It is simpler for a new user not to although there are valid reasons to use one. It just complicates things if you are just learning.

Creating a swap partition on the second drive is probably a good idea. It is not always necessary and depends upon the amount of RAM you have. I would suggest creating a 1-2GB swap partition. Use the same method as described above to create the root partition.

Your "Allocate Drive Space" window should show your windows on sda which should be the first drive and should show the 80GB secondary drive as sdb. In the Device for bootloader installation drop down menu, if /dev/sdb is set and that is your 80GB drive where you want Ubuntu, leave it and the Grub bootloader will be installed to the master boot record of that drive. You can then select that drive on boot in the BIOS to boot Ubuntu. You should also have an option on the Ubuntu Grub boot menu to select windows 2k.

If you want to do something else, just repost the info.