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I wanted to install Ubuntu 12.04 on my external 80 GB hard disk. During installation I selected "Something else" option. I formatted the hard disk there with "free space" as file system. As there was a power down, my computer switched off. Now, its not detecting my hard disk anymore. Though my BIOS shows my external hard disk is connected, but neither Windows nor Ubuntu ( in the "something else" part) detects my hard disk. Please help.

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Try accessing Gparted from the live cd and seeing if the External Drive is visible from there. If it's visible format it again and try to install Ubuntu on it again. There could be an error on the hard drive if the computer shut down halway through formatting/installing.

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Thanks for quick reply. I tried as you said, but Gparted isn't showing my external hard disk under "Devices". It just shows my internal 500gb hard disk and 4 gb USb drive( ubuntu live cd) – Rihel Bhowmick Jan 10 at 17:47
Hmm, if it's not then disconnect it and in the Terminal on the LiveCD run lsusb. After this connect your external drive and run lsusb again. If it registers the external drive you should see an extra entry in the list that's displayed. – Merri Jan 10 at 17:51
I just tried to boot up from hard disk through BIOS, after it shows no OS found. Reinstall or select disk, the next time I boot up, Windows shows my hard disk. Hence my problem solved. Anyways thanks for your help. Now how should I install ubuntu 12.04 in my external hard disk. Its currently in NTFS file system and 80 GB. – Rihel Bhowmick Jan 11 at 15:44
Glad to hear you got it fixed! Follow this guide to install on an external hard drive (linuxbsdos.com/2011/05/23/…). It's just as easy as a standard install! Just be sure that you have the right drive select when partitioning it, if you have just the external drive connected at the time then it will be dev/sdb but if you have more devices connected it could be dev/sdc. The dev/sda one will be your internal drive so don't edit anything on that! – Merri Jan 11 at 16:03

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