To all that can help me out. Thanks in forward...

I'm trying to install Mandriva 2007. But at the beginning of the installation, where the partitioning begins, i'm receiving an error:

An error occurred
ext3 formatting of sda1 failed.

I'm installing Mandriva on my Maxtor 160GB, connected to a promiss controller (motherboard: Asus k8v deluxe). The harddrive is the primary boot-disk in my BIOS.

I have no problem installing Ubuntu on this drive, but Mandriv just won't install.

Please help me out.

This is what I found out, after giving it another shot:

When Mandriva installation starts, it detects both SATA controllers on my motherboard: Promise Fasttrack and the VIA.

The VIA contains 2 160GB Seagates, configured RAID0
The Promise contains 2 160GB HD's (One Maxtor and one WD), not raid configured...

So, i have to answer 2 questions before we arrive at partitioning, thats:

You wish to activate raid?

The first question is the promis, so i answer NO
The second is the VIA, so i answer YES

The partitioner sees all the drives, just the way it supposed to be:

hda (Maxtor)
hdb (WD)
mapper --> My C and D partitions on the RAID0

Perfect, but my hda will not format.

Then I restart and answer YES to both questions. Now i can format my Maxtor, but it is not hda, but mapper when entering the partitioner!!!!!

And there is the problem, because after the bootloader install, it does not recognize a mapper, because there is none. There is a hda, but not configured in the bootloader.

I think this is a problem, only Mandriva can solve...

Or maybe one of you wizz-kids :P