Installing Ubuntu 13.04 on Ideapad u510 after deleting all partitions

Installing Ubuntu 13.04 on Ideapad u510 after deleting all partitions

Here is my problem. I purchased a lenovo ideapad u510. I switched the boot
mode to legacy, started the ubuntu live cd (via usb), deleted all partions
on the 24gb ssd as well as the 500gb hdd and started installing ubuntu.
That's what I always do, because I like to start with fresh partition
tables when I install an operating system. But this time I ran into
serious trouble. The hdd just doesn't play along. For some reason I had to
install everything on /dev/sda, which is the 24gb ssd. I did create a
partition on /dev/sdb (for /home) but couldn't use it. I don't remember
what the problem was.
Well, the installation was successful. Since than a message kept popping
up all the time, telling me about a defect hard drive. I deleted from
/dev/sdb1 (partition on the 500gb hdd) and the message didn't show up
anymore. But still, I am stuck with a system of just 24gb in total of
external memory, although there is a 500gb hard drive in that machine. It
is there in /dev/ as /dev/sdb, but gparted /dev/sdb now gives me the
message "Error opening /dev/sdb: no medium found".
Apparently the ssd and hdd are supposed to work together in some kind of
raid-like fashion. Unfortunately I screwed that up when I deleted all the
original partitions. I know nothing about this stuff and Ubuntu doesn't
either. Does anyone know how to fix this? i just want to have Ubuntu on
that machine and be able to use both disks.