Ok I've got a live USB which I can load the ubuntu 12.10 installer from so that's no problem. I am very cautious about losing files and I don't have much space on my computer anyway so I am going to install ubuntu to my 300 gig portable hard drive.
Here's the deal:
My computer has 2 internal drives: C: 500 gigabytes D: 1000 gigabytes
And then my 300 gig portable hard drive has 2 partitions: M: My Stuff - 211 gigabytes NTFS P: Ubuntu (currently blank) - 86 gigabytes NTFS (I tried formatting it as ext4 but windows couldn't detect it anymore so I changed it back. I know it needs to be ext4 for ubuntu to boot though)
Now I want to boot my computer from the USB and install ubuntu to the portable hard drive on the 86 gigabyte partition without touching my main 2 hard drives or the 200 gig partition on my portable have drive. Is it possible to install ubuntu 12.10 to this Ubuntu partition and get it to boot correctly? If so please tell me step by step how to achieve this installation without corrupting my computers boot loader.
Thanks in advance ;)