Linux Ubuntu and partitions and stuff

Since I bought a new computer and my brother took all the good pieces of my old one to put in his computer, I still have a “left-over”:

Intel PIII 500 Mhz
320 MB RAM
4 GIG HDD
CD-ROM
NVIDIA GFORCE
16bit SoundBlaster

Instead of putting it in a dark corner full of dust, I decided to install Linux Ubuntu on it. I downloaded it (still have to put it on CD) but I have a couple of questions before starting the mess:

  1. Oops: my BIOS doesn’t seem to detect the 4GIG Western Digital harddisk at all… It still contains a bit of junk (personal files and such) with no OS on it. I tried the program “WD Data Life Guard” which is supposed to help me install and partition the harddisk, but it just says “your BIOS does not detect your harddisk”, while the “Data Guard” recognizes it. Now what? :puzzled:
    I mean, it used to work fine with it…

  2. The harddisk is in NTFS. And Linux requires FAT32, right? I want to make it a “Linux only” machine… Good idea? Bad idea? I think 4 GIG is enough for Ubuntu + personal files.

Thanks in advance! I’m just a noob when it comes to Linux… :red: