Welcome to Linux
First off, you need to post your system spec's
What chipset your motherboard uses
What type of hardrive(SATA or IDE)
It sounds like SATA on unknown chipset (VIA or SIS)
The latest Intel (i865 & i875) have no problems
 
MSI NEO2LS i865 mombo
P4 2.6c
Maxtor 80g SATA
ATI 9800Pro
512 x 2 OEM Ram
NEC 1300A DVD-RW
Lian Li Mid Tower
Enermax 380w PS
 

I have an amd athalon xp2200
on a asrock board with sis chipset
2x 512ddr
20gb ide hd which has been partitioned
120gb and 60gb all ide
i have a GeForce4 gfx card
 
any more info you need just let me know?

Do you have windows installed on
c: partition (120g partition)
My setup is SATA 80gig split in 2
40g on c partition for Xp
40g for mandrake
80g ATA split in 2
40g & 40g for backup data
movies+mp3&game saves
 
Windows must be installed first
I would also try without the 3rd drive
IDE drives work best on channel 1
I have herd of people having problems
with hardives on the secong channel
 

Thanks for your suggestion, tried removing all other drives, but didnt work.
 
XP is installed on C on first partition.
 
I was looking forward to trying Linux but not looking very hopeful!

hi riazmc,
 
occasionally it can lead to problems during the installation if you have set "ACPI" to "enabled" in your BIOS. So for a quick test, enter your mobo's BIOS (DEL or F1-key, whatever; should be displayed on screen), search for the ACPI entry and set it to "disabled".
 
After you've done that boot from the CD, press F1 and enter the line
 
linux noapic nolapic
 
Maybe this helps, at least it only takes a minute to try it out.
 
Good luck

In your bios there may also be the option to disable APIC (no clue what It does),but apperently it can cause hangups.

thanks guys the linux noapic nolapic command worked, installed perfectly and its looking good.
 
just one more very newbie question, how do i access files on my other hard drives?
 
also what programs can i use to cusomize the appearance, looks im using something called GNOME at the minute.
 
Thanks again.

heya riazmc,
 
glad to hear the install worked. now let's tackle your other questions ...
 
HDD access
There are 2 ways to do that: (a) via the "mounts-control-panel" in drakconf or ( the manual way by editing the file "/etc/fstab"
 
The easy way/Ad (a)
Open your MDK control-center or type "drakconf" at the console and go to the section about mounting drives and partitions. This lets you add drives/partitions to the file "/etc/fstab" so that you can access those.
 
Ad (
Of course you can also edit /etc/fstab manually, though I recommend a bit of reading about the options before you do that. Also you need to know the shortcuts (e.g. "hda1/hda2") and types for your partitions (ext2/ext3/reiser or vfat etc.) As a starting point you can try this link
>>>
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Mount_MS_Windows_partitions_(FAT,NTFS)
<<<
Go down to "Step 2" to have the options of an fstab-entry explained. Generally speaking: Using the word "HOWTO" in combination with some problem has saved plenty of linux-noobs a lot of time searching for the right answer on Google. So in your case try some searches with terms like "mount howto", "fstab howto" etc.
 
The Looks of your GUI
You can set this too from within drakconf. Just click the "Display" icon and choose your favorite window manager (KDE or GNOME). Can't give you no tipps about what's better as KDE vs. GNOME is a religious thing. I personally _HATE_ Gnome but that does not mean that KDE is so very much superior.
 
I prefer KDE mainly because I don't want to have the "OK/CANCEL" buttons to have registered as "real estates" due to their enormous sizes and because of the "file open"-dialog, where GNOME manages it to drive me nuts by always starting in the home directory and not offering favorites or a "places sidebar" as KDE does. But that's totally up to your liking.
 
Another word according the "noapic/nolapic"-thing. If you ever experience freezes or crashes whilst working with linux, then you should pass those parameters to LILO too. For this to do, open - once more - drakconf, click on "boot" and go into "advanced mode". This brings up a dialog where you can add the "nolapic"-parameter (the line should read something like "[blah] acpi=ht [blah]"; just add "nolapic" there).
 
Have much fun with linux, dude

acpi=ht is applicable to systems with HyperThreading CPUs.
 
acpi=noirq is applicable to many systems, as ACPI support is still
"an area of active development" (read: sometimes buggy )
 
2.6 kernels seem most sensitive to ACPI handling. 2.4 kernels, not so much.
 
enjoy!