Your installation medium is on dev/sdb1. You will not be able to create, delete, or resize partitions on this disk, but you may be able to install to existing partitions there.
I have gotten the above message while trying to install Ubuntu. I am reinstalling Ubuntu because of a crash that rendered me unable to boot Ubuntu so I decided to restart the reinstallation process only days after installing for the first time. This message appeared after I tried to change dev/sdb1 fat32 to ext2 in order to install Ubuntu to that partition. After I got this message I tried to select dev/sdb1 and press change but nothing happens no matter how long I wait for a response. I can’t format to fat32 as no root file system is defined. It tells me to correct this from the partitioning menu.
To be honest, I am completely new to Ubuntu and have no idea how to proceed at this point. I can’t install Ubuntu and can’t click change on dev/sdb1 fat32. Maybe I should try to completely wipe my disk clean? If needed I am able to access the terminal by entering try Ubuntu. Any help at all would be appreciated, thanks :)
21 Answer
When you make an installation, the installer detects two disks (or more): the live USB you are running from and the hard disk of your computer.
More often than not* the names of the disks will be:
USB: /dev/sdb
HARD DISK: /dev/sda
And the partitions of each disk is a number added to the name /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1, etc.
When performing the installation, you have to ensure that you select your HARD DISK (/dev/sda), not your USB (/dev/sdb), and ensure that the boot loader (GRUB) is installed on your sda.
* In some situations, the installer may detect the USB as /dev/sda, and the hard disk as something else.
