SuSE 8.2 installation. Different computer, different road block.
 

So previously, I had tried to install SuSE 8.2 on a computer, which I will refer to as "PURE EVIL". It had been acting up, and printing up a whole lot of 99's when I tried to boot it. Much thanks to jailbait for all his help, but I'm writing that off as a lost cause. If I didn't have alternatives, I'd keep chugging away at it. However, I have two other servers I can try this with, and I'm now trying with one of them.
I have three servers, each one glitched in some manner. For this particular machine, I already have SuSE 7.3 running. I'm trying to upgrade to SuSE 8.2 by wiping the hard drive and starting from scratch. HOWEVER, the computer won't let it be that easy.
I've got the CD in the drive, and it booted up. I selected "Installation". It chugged along, and spat out some stuff. Then it prints out a bunch of the standard bootup stuff. Then I get this:



hda4: bad access: block=2, count=2
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:04 (hda), sector 2
EXT2-fs: unable to read superblock
hda4: bad access: block=2, count=2
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:04 (hda), sector 2
MINIX-fs: unable to read superblock
hda4: bad access: block=64, count=2
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:04 (hda), sector 64
isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=03:04, iso_blknum=16, block=32


The warning closes with "Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:04."

The computer then suggests that I retry boot, with pci=noacpi or acpi=oldboot. I tried both of these, as well as installation with ACPI disabled. None of them worked. I always get the same results.

What's going on? It looks like the computer is trying to start the installation by mounting the kernel through two different file systems, but fails miserably both times. More importantly, what can I do to fix it?
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Now, as an alternative, I do have SuSE 7.3 still on this computer, and I could probably run that. However, there is a problem there as well. It boots up perfectly, but then does what Linux does and prompts me for a username and password. Unfortunately, the passwords were long ago lost to the sands of time and are but a forgotten memory. Is there any way to get around this road block and reset the passwords?

----Thrifty----

Could it simply be that those errors indicate that your hard drive is corrupted? Controler failure of some kind?

You say these boxes already have on OS.... Have you scanned the drives to see if anything interesting comes up?