OK, i'm trying to install Mandrake 9.01 again after I got a new HDD (80GB Samsung) and every time I try, I get past the boot screen ("Press f1 for more options", etc) and it crashes as it's ready my harddrive. I have about 2GB at the beginning which is full of bad and damaged sectors, and impossible to write to, but Mandrake will read them and then refuse to install. Is there any way around this? I've tried partitioning off the first 2GB as Unallocated and the rest with Ext2, but it still did the same thing. It always gives a Kernel panic error, too. Any ideas?

Is the 80GB HD a new (as in "bought") disk? If so, return it. I think that if the MBR is on a damaged section, the disk would be unusable.