USB flash drive wont detect hard drive/SATA

Question

OK here goes nothing. I had a problem installing ubuntu desktop from a CD drive. Live system not detected issue. Got the install process going a few times but it seemed to crash towards the end (tried 15 times got it to boot once which also crashed). So I decided to do it with a USB stick HP(4GB). I used the universal boot loader to create the iso. So there's no issue with the credibility of the iso. BIOS was configured to boot from the usb stick. The system booted from the USB drive but when I tried installing ubuntu into the hard drive, I got the error of not enough disk space. So i figured the flash drive was trying to install Ubuntu in itself and not into the hard drive. Thus didnt detect my hard drive.

My question is how do you do a BIOS update/upgrade? How do I get the flash drive to detect the hard drive? Is there any other way that you have in mind that i might try?

Note: My BIOS is American Megatrends. Manufacturer XFX. MI-A78S-8209. Hard drive Hitachi 1T.

Answer 1

To update your BIOS, you will have to go to the website of your motherboard (or PC, if you bought a pre-built, i.e. Dell, HP) to find the correct download. They are typically an iso that you burn to a CD and run.

To install to the hard drive, instead of the flash drive, when you get to the "Installation Type" screen, choose "Something Else".

That will allow you to manually partition your drive and set where you want to install. Create a 2GB partition for swap, and make the rest an ext4 partition, using "/" as the mount point.

Answer 2

Thanks reverendj1, for your help but that wasn't the issue. I never even made it to that window you posted above. Also when I did make it to that window (after running in AHCI mode), I choose the other option of using the entire disk, considering I didn't need windows anymore. Still though your comments are appreciated.

Note: This I would not recommend (dangerous) (what I did was tried to run in RAID5 mode, but it didn't work so I deleted the MBR tables, thus windows was gone). RAID5 mode didn't work. I would not recommend deleteting MBR tables unless: 1) You can boot the USB drive, at least you will have a way to get back into the system through ubuntu 12.04 64 bit. 2) You want Windows to be gone. (You wont be able to get back into windows if you delete the MBR) 3) If you've tried everything and you just haven't been able to get UBUNTU 12.04 64bit AMD installed through a USB stick. Also I used a 1GB flash drive to install the system, so much for 2GB minimum requirement.

The problem was in the BIOS. Although my manufacturer told me I cant boot from a USB, I still managed to do it...with some side effects :), I went into BIOS, changed SATA to AHCI mode, so that the computer boots from AHCI. This way it thinks that its running a USB drive...I think...could be wrong.

Note: I dont know if running in AHCI mode will have any side effects later but from what I read it can have some performance advantages?