Now i realise that this is a linux board, and really this thread doesnt belong here, but after the help i recieved the other day, this is the first place i thought of, so i apologise for bringing a windows problem here... But i need to install windows first beofre i install linux, so i really would like some help if you can spare me your time

I bought a new hard drive, I partitioned 140gb of the 180gb for a windows xp pro install, (and left the remaining space un-partitioned) formatted it ntfs (the long format) i went thro the first steps of the windows set up, it restarts (now is starting to boot off the hard drive, not the cd) and i get a message saying a disk read error has occured, i have tried the same with xp home (btw these copies are totally legal, bought and paid for) and got the same message...

any ideas? it is a western digital 180gb ata hd...

any help would be appreciated as i am getting behind on a llot of things without my pc

"A disk read error has occured". Don't you just love windows?

There may be something wrong with your disk: Try another one. If that fails maybe there is a problem with your disk controller or cabling.

I agree with tredegar. Most likely something is wrong with the disk. You could try another disk or use disk diag tools from the manufacturer.

-twantrd

thanks guys, I used a friends hard drive (he doesn't know i formatted it yet :P) and it worked perfectly, so it is a faulty piece of hardware. Just incase anyone wanted to know, i bought it from www.chillblast.com