Recently I wiped my older Compaq Presario 1525us and reinstalled XP Pro which runs fine. I didn't create separate partitions at the onset thinking I'd do that later. Later I tried partitioning the drive/installing Ubuntu 8.10, the partitioning kept failing.

Ultimately, GPARTED provided the following error message:
ERROR: Hopelessly many bad sectors has been detected!
* WARNING: The disk has many bad sectors. This means physical damage on the disk surface caused by deterioration, manufacturing faults or other reason. We suggest to get a replacement disk as soon as possible. *

I realize that even if I were to successfully partition & install Ubuntu, further problems could arise due to the corrupt sectors.

MY QUESTION:
Is there a temporary solution I can use to create the partition and hopefully familiarize myself/play around with Ubuntu while I look for a new HDD?
Also, while reading up on GPARTED I saw many references to NTFSPROGS. Does GPARTED come with it already or is it something a user is supposed to build/slipstream/install? If the latter, I've been unable to find proper reading material/figure out how to do that.

***********************
Already Tried:
(1)Ubuntu 8.10 i386 Alternate ISO
(2)Ubuntu 8.10 i386 Desktop ISO
Both Alt & Dsktp would say:
The resize operation is impossible because of an unknown reason it is impossible to resize this partition.
Check /var/log/syslog or see virtual console 4 for details.
(3)Disable WinXP Paging File
(4)Disable WinXP Hibernation
(5)Defragment in Safe Mode (multiple times throughout)
(6)CHKDSK C:/f /r
(7)Ultimate Boot CD v4.1.1
Drive Fitness Test v4.09 (IBM/Hitachi)
Advanced Test
Disposition Code: 0x70 (Corrupted Sector)
Salvation Scan & Restoration v3.0
Advanced Scan:
Total Defects: 162
Fast Restore:
Total Sectors Counted: 78140160
Number of Retries: 1
Analyzing Sector: 9999
(8)Defrag & CHKDSK again
(9)GPARTED 0.4.3-2

Not really, no. Once sectors start going on a drive, it is pretty much done for. You could try partitioning with a tool that isn't so advanced and may not check the drive for bad blocks (like fdisk), but really you won't get very far.

You would be better off running from a live CD to get yourself familiar with the system until the new drive arrives.

Thanks for the reply. In the meantime I've decided to wipe the drive, reinstall XP, create partitions from the beginning this time. I realize the drive is on borrowed time, but oh well.

Any input on my NTFSPROGS question?