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hey, I have a computer that seems to have faulty hardware. I can run operating systems off of the computer and it runs perfectly, however, whenever i boot from CD to try and install a different operating system the thing tells me that the system never responds. Linux hangs after 30 seconds, windows just freaks out. I think it's a problem with how it's connecting to the hard drive. Is it possible it's just the IDE cable or do you think it's something else?

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Please try to mount partitions in the LiveCD and try writing to them, after that check dmesg for any messages. – Bobby Apr 15 '10 at 7:44
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Which Windows OS are you installing? I had a problem with my machine and a new graphics card (some conflict between it and the Windows XP builtin USB drivers for my machine) which meant I could not install WinXP from the CD. – Mokubai Apr 15 '10 at 8:05
If you are installing Windows, you should be able to format the disk before installing the OS. Have you tried this? If the disk wont write, you may have to replace your hard drive. Bobby's advice is good and would answer the same question. – nicorellius Apr 15 '10 at 15:17
Bobby- I can't even boot into the live cd. It gets to the point where it sets up initfs and then panics. I'm almost starting to think it's a problem with the CD drive even tho it states that it's something with writing to HD0 (an old copy of ubuntu 8.04 is installed on it but it's been years since i used the drive and i've forgotten the password), I've tried installing windows 7. It gets to the copying files stage and then panics, I'd love to format the disk. If i could get to it. – Kravlin Apr 15 '10 at 15:21
So. through a lot of trial and error swapping out hard drives i was able to get the thing to boot, and install on the hard drive. However, now while the motherboard sees the hard drive when it posts. when it goes to boot from it it doesn't see anything and just tells me that an invalid system disk has been inserted – Kravlin Apr 16 '10 at 16:36
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