hey
i just bought a new hard disk 80 GB and tried to install fedora 7 on it.
On the first installation i didnt install the Grub booter so after rebooting it did nothing.
Next i re-installed fedora and this time everything was ok . After rbooting though the loading procedure freezes in the line
"Uncompressing Linux...Loading the kernel"


After that i did a third installation , and i think now the things are really worse. On startup this time i get another 2 or three lines after
"Uncompressing Linux...Loading the kernel" but then it says something like kernel panic ..etc ..bad sector...halting the system.

So now i connected my old drive with ubuntu on it to try and format the new hard disk from inside linux. But the new hard disk isnt recognized. In the system log file i get this message

Feb 5 18:20:18 B kernel: [ 322.997733] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
Feb 5 18:20:18 B hald: mounted /dev/sdb1 on behalf of uid 0
Feb 5 18:20:18 B kernel: [ 323.006442] EXT3 FS on sdb1, internal journal

Feb 5 18:20:18 B kernel: [ 323.006450] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Feb 5 18:20:49 B kernel: [ 354.443417] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Feb 5 18:21:01 B kernel: [ 366.589533] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Feb 5 18:21:01 B kernel: [ 366.589542] Buffer I/O error on device fd0, logical block 0
Feb 5 18:21:14 B kernel: [ 378.728018] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Feb 5 18:21:14 B kernel: [ 378.728027] Buffer I/O error on device fd0, logical block 0
Feb 5 18:21:26 B kernel: [ 390.878315] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Feb 5 18:21:26 B kernel: [ 390.878324] Buffer I/O error on device fd0, logical block 0
Feb 5 18:21:38 B kernel: [ 403.024531] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Feb 5 18:21:38 B kernel: [ 403.024540] Buffer I/O error on device fd0, logical block 0
Feb 5 18:21:50 B kernel: [ 415.163252] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Feb 5 18:21:50 B kernel: [ 415.163260] Buffer I/O error on device fd0, logical block 0
Feb 5 18:22:02 B kernel: [ 427.309495] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0

which keeps coming all the time

Did i destryed my ne HDD ????
or is there a solution of formating it again?

uuuuupsss
ok the messages on the syslog are nothing
is just a wrong double click on the floppy disk icon

but this is the correct part that is about the hard disk

[ 22.287420] scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST380815AS 4.AA PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.288407] scsi 2:0:1:0: CD-ROM SONY DVD-ROM DDU1615S EYN1 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.297328] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 78165360 512-byte hardware sectors (40021 MB)
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.297340] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.297343] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.297359] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.297412] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 78165360 512-byte hardware sectors (40021 MB)
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.297422] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.297424] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.297439] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.297443] sda: sda1 sda2 < sda5 >
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.352647] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.352827] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.352839] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.352841] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.352856] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.352899] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.352908] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.352928] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.353023] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.353027] sdb:sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 48x/48x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.356546] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.356744] sr 0:0:1:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.369839] sdb1 sdb2
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.370257] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.374103] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.374128] sr 0:0:1:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.374147] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.374166] sr 2:0:1:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 5
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.384303] sr1: scsi3-mmc drive: 4x/48x cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.384429] sr 2:0:1:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr1
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.604551] Attempting manual resume
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.604554] swsusp: Resume From Partition 8:5
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.604556] PM: Checking swsusp image.
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.604728] PM: Resume from disk failed.
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.642330] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
Feb 5 18:15:22 B kernel: [ 22.642345] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.

The hard disk messages look perfectly normal to me.

Me too.

Seems to look for a suspend image (if you had suspended your machine and therefore would want to resume to that state), doesn't find one (so apparently you either didn't suspend or then it's not working, and a "normal" boot is happening), and in the last line tells the filesystem is mounted without problems.

What's the trouble then? Did you check the mount directory, if the contents show up there?

I'm a fan of 'trial & error' and 'deductive reasoning'.
Meaning, I would try installing Ubuntu on the new drive and see if it works, since you managed to install Ubuntu on another drive in that box sucessfully, which would narrow down the problem to Fedora. It is not un-common for Fedora's installer to complete an install using generic drivers for the hardware present, then going into a panic upon first boot because it's not using the same driver for the problematic hardware.
If the problem exists with Ubuntu also, then you can point the finger at the hard drive and focus on it.