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[actionparsnip <question79265@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Question #79265 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/79265

    Status: Open => Answered

actionparsnip proposed the following answer:
Ok, the "drives" that windows sees are not in fact drives but
partitions. You have a single physical drive split into 2 partitions.
Windows is just naming them incorrectly and when people move over to
Linux they actually see how confusing Windows makes things. Linux also
does not use drive letters, It uses block devices and mount points. This
will become clearer soon.

Your drive is /dev/sda (based on the text in your initial question).
/dev/sda is a thing you can touch and feel. /dev/sda1 is the first
partition on the drive, /dev/sda2 is the second and so on...

SATA is treated as SCSI in Linux. hence sda, if it was PATA (What people
erroneously refer to as IDE) will be known as /dev/hda /dev/hdb etc.

ok, if you want to remove the non bootable drive (What you know as "f
drive") this is fine. The data on that partition will however be
destroyed so make sure your backups are up to date and/or the data is no
longer needed. You can then delete the partition to make free space for
the Ubuntu install. You may find your supplier of the system has put
your system recovery files on this partition also so check into that and
be sure of exactly what you are dealing with.

Once you have deleted the partition (you CAN resize ntfs to make room
for Ubuntu instead) then you can tell the installer to use the space
available and will install, the dual boot will also be handled as the
grub install will detect the OS on the other partition and automagically
add it in the options at boot time.

If you have any questions, please ask. Make sure your backups are up to
date and read EVERYTHING on the screen during install.

You may also want to read:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

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