installation - Can't install Ubuntu 10.10

I have quite a specific problem with Ubuntu installation (10.10, 64bit).

I have a hard drive, say /dev/sda where 32 bit ubuntu 10.10 had been installed on sda1. I removed this installation with mkfs and now this partition is clean. I burned a start-up Ubuntu disc and I am trying to install it.

For some strange reasons ubuntu installer mounts this drive as /cdrom and I can't go on with the instalation because 'It cannot be unmounted" and "partition table cannot be altered"

I don't want to repartition the HDD neither to format anything. The only changes I introduced to the partition table within the installer was to set up mounting points.

So how to install Ubuntu in this case? I've tried a lot of different things,
e.g. it doesn't help to move the HDD to another controller. So even if /dev/sda is a clean new HDD and /dev/sdb is the HDD of interest, the stupid installer still mounts it (now /dev/sdb)

So I did another experiment: I put a third HDD into the machine. Now it looks as follows:

• /dev/sda1 - 1TB (irrelevant HDD with ext3 partition)


• /dev/sdb1 - 1TB with another Ubuntu 10.10 32 bit installation



• /dev/sdc1 - 1TB THE HARD DRIVE, where Ubuntu 10.10 32 bit used to be installed

Unfortunately even now the installer says "your installation medium is /dev/sdc1" WHY? Why there but neither on /dev/sda1 nor on /dev/sdb2???

Although now I have 3 HDDs, I can't play too much with them, because:

• /dev/sdb1 holds my backup of /dev/sda1


• /dev/sdc1 is borrowed from another machine and I don't want to have yet another problem with ubuntu installation (when I would mess up /dev/sdc1)

I also need to keep partition table on the target drive because there are other partitions there with users' data