I have 2 HD's; 40 GB,Ch0 master with Win XP; 160 GB,Ch0 slave with Ubuntu 12.04. I used Parted Magic to repartition the 160 GB drive and I changed the jumpers to reverse the master/slave position. Now I have Win XP on the 40 GB slave drive and an empty 160 GB HD master. I partitioned the 160 GB HD as 1 GB boot; 78 GB root; 62 GB Home and 8+ GB Linux-Swap.
I used Parted Magic and Boot Repair Disk to install the MBR and Grub2; however, in searching the drive I can't find them. Atempts to install Ubuntu 14.04 using a DVD+R, I consistently get the message "missing operating system - operating system load error". Does anyone have an idea why the Ubuntu 14.04.1-i386-iso won't load?
I followed the suggestions of Virusboy and gyropyge by deleting the partitions. I also disconnected the Windows XP drive as suggested by gyropyge. The Seagate Barracuda 160GB drive was designated as unallocated. I then attempted to install Ubuntu 14.04.1 from a DVD iso I downloaded from the Ubuntu website. I set all 3 options in the BIOS to boot from CDROM. Upon restarting, after the BIOS processed, I get "missing operating system" which repeats until I shut down. I then used Parted Magic, changed the drive from "unallocated" to one large formatted partition. I got the same result: "missing operating system".