I just bought 3 computers that a guy from craigslist put together for me. In each computer he put an 80Gb HDD. They are all completely empty/wiped. So I am trying to install Ubuntu 14.04 from a USB. I have done this to at least 10 other computers, 5 of which I still have. All of the computers had a previous OS though. When I try to install on these new 3 I get to installation type and the list is empty. Not even the "freespace" that i see in so many other peoples posts. I have tried the "Try Ubuntu" option and used the disk utility to format for Ext4 and then mounted it by pushing the "play" button. It show up in GParted but not "install type" when I go to install.The "partition table" button is ghosted out so I can't click it. I have read about RAID Metadata of which I have never heard of beforehand so I have decided to all zero format the HDD and see if that works. Otherwise what else can I do?
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There are quite a few similar questions. Here are some I've looked up for you: 1 and 2 and 3. – mikewhatever Feb 27 '16 at 16:22
3 Answers
Zero format usual fixes corrupted drives; did you tried the simple automated install option?
Did you used the latest 14 buid? Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS is a fairly recent build and has updated drivers; maybe that helps
Ok. so Zero formatting the HDD actually worked. I had been at this since last night and started to panic a little so I posted just in case. Everything showed up as expected and the install is underway. In all of the looking around I vaguely remember seeing RAID in the BIOS or terminal while trying to figure out what was my issue. Any ways, Thank You Ubuntu community for giving me a little more information like partition schemes to learn from. Install is complete and on to the next computer.
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From what I understand, you were able to access the partition able. There's is something under the device column which starts from /dev but I assumed it's /dev/sda, since its the only disk from your computer. First, you need to create partition table from the disk for you to install the OS.
You can refer here for basic partition schemes.
Hope it helps.
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yes it is /dev/sda but I was not allowed to create the partition table becasue the button was not clickable. I tried to do all of these things in terminal but kept getting errors like the drive don't exist. The issue has been resolved by zero formatting it but thanks so much for replying. – Brandon Feb 27 '16 at 16:41