mandrake 10.01 installation
 

Hi guys, I have a problem, recently I got hold of an old gnu/linux ditro (red hat 9), and I've been at it for 2 weeks setting up a file and printing server, I've also set it up as a DHCP server as well. I manage to make it work, my win98, winxp and win2k can log to the server without any problems at all. so....since just recently I found out that red hat linux 9 has already stopped (yes I am new to the linux world so please bear with me =) anyway, I got hold on to another distro, and this time its mandrake 10.01. now my problem starts here. I got the mandrake installer from linuxiso.org website and burned the iso image to a disc with no problem. so I started to boot up my linux computer and tried to setup mandrake, but after I get to the part where it tries to create a ramdrive (I think) it suddenly gives me a "fatal error" message and when i press alt-F3 I can see theres an i/o error, does this mean that the installer is corrupt? or do I need to take out the red hat 9 out first before installing? the system I am using is a celeron 1.2mghz with 256ram (16mb shared). I need to setup a server and workstation using mandrake on a network coz we have license issues here. I would appreciate any help regarding this. thanks!

You should not need to format over redhat because it does that just before the actual install.
(Mandrake is now mandrivia, just as RredHat 9 is now Fidora.)
anyway, you should have the option to do a CD Quality check for mandrake.
If you do find your disk is corrupt, sh!t happens, I recommend using a CDRW disk and downloading from a different mirror.
Click on the folder icon instead of the cd to list the web pages.
I had RH9 on my box and did not have a problem writing over it with a new distro.
So that leads me to think the .iso was bad despite being properly burned.
If you can find a B!tchBox and install Mandrake without a problem and you do the cd integrity check that tells you its good, and you use a md5sum checker to find it is good, then in the worse case is, that your cd drive has gone bad.
This has just happened to me 5 weeks ago, I/O error using my burner drive to install linux then it installed just fine using my dvd drive. (if this is the case call the drives manufacturer.)

Test the Disk separately with a drive you know works,
Test the Disk Drive separately with an install cd you know works,
Test both at the same time, then do it again diffrently.
If you have a cd drive checker from the manufacturer use it.

regarding mandarake installation
 

thanks for the quick response, since I was able to install red hat 9 recently, I'm not sure if there is a problem with my cd drive, while trying to configure my for 2 weeks I've messed up quite a few times so I had to reinstalled red hat 9 probably 10 times. but I'll check the mandrake cd to my other computers and see what happens, if I have the same problem I guess I might need to download it again. one more thing, whenever I try to install it and hit the alt f2 (advance mode) I can see there that prior to the fatal error, I can see its mounting all the hardware (including usb's) and checking the cd installer, and everything is going great except for the part when it tries to create a ramdisk I guess for the whole installation, anyway I'll check the cd rom drive and the cd installer just to make sure first then I'll report it back here thanks! really appreciate it =)