I had a dual boot system, with Windows XP, and Debian/Linux. I have two SCSI hard drives; which had Windows XP on one, and Debian/Linux on the other. I was getting delayed write errors on the XP disk; with data loss; and I/O errors on the Linux drive.
I did a low level format on the XP drive; using the Adaptec disk utilities. I reinstalled XP, and it is working fine. Windows recognizes both drives; Drive C: RAW; and Drive F: XP.
I want to re-format the former Debian drive, but when I run 'Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 r0 "Woody", Disk 1 of 8' I get the prompt that says there are no hard disks found???

Woody is no longer Debian stable. In the years since Woody, Sarge has become stable, and before the end of 2006 Etch is due to become stable.

You may have issues because the hardware detection on Woody is too old to correctly detect your hardware. I'd suggest you try downloading sarge, the current stable. If this is a home system that you use as anything other than a server, sarge would be the wrong choice as well. Try etch (testing) or sid (unstable).

Peace,
JimBass