i typed the
dmesg | grep -i mb

i can see the usb ports and the available memory but nothing about a HD

i did the dmesg | grep -i mb i see the output for the usb drives and the available memory but there is nothing about a HD

installing linux on a laptop (or netbook) can be just as easy or complicated as installing a distro on a desktop pc

i just couldn't be simpler just download the latest version of the distro you want (trust me if you do this the chances of the built in wlan adapter will work) then run the live cd (this way you can preview what your father inlaw wants get him to give them a try and see what he wants, what is he going to use it for) then there should be a install icon on the desktop

sorry for the double post using my psp

the installer should easily guide you through the installation process then before you know it, after like an hour or so it should be finished. some of the distros i would suggest are

ubuntu (good for general purpose use your wlan should work and open office will already be on the along with a few other programs)
pclinuxos (proud user this one works on anything but as of version 2009.2 your going to have to get the software yourself)

like i said before i'm on my psp
as i was saying detecting wireless networks on linux is like doing it in windows, but ynu don't have any unessisary programs monitoring it thank god, and like in windows you'll need the wep (the key thd at lets ynu connect to the router) then you should be ready but be patient wireless in linux take time sometimes

i was also say that as of version 2009.2 of pclinuxos your going to have to download and install some of them yourself check repositories 1st

now after reading all of your replys my approach to this willbe deleteing all the partitions from the disk, then formatting a new one from all the space on the disk, everything that was on there should be gone

plus if you do suspect that the cd is the culpret, try using a live usb instead just make sure that its able to boot from usb

What does your BIOS show when you go to the drive, highlight and hit 'enter key' to get info about the drive. Does it show accurate information about the drive? From previous posts, it seems like a bad drive but it could be jsut a loose connection to the system board or power supply.

Shouldn't there be a number behind "badblocks -w /dev/hda"? As: "hda1" or "hda2"?

If you want to check just a single partition, use the partition number after the disk name. To check an entire disk you can use the name without the number. However, running a destructive "-w" test will delete the partitions if you test the whole disk. Using "-n" instead of "-w" will preserve the contents of the partition table and partitions but still read/write test the whole disk. There is always a slight risk of losing data so it's better not to use "-n" or "-w" if you have something on the disk or partition that you want.

You actually could use an entire hard disk for a file system without creating partitions. Linux partition detection would complain that the partition table was not valid, but you could still mount the hard disk without specifying a partition number. Unfortunately there is no provision (that I know of) to disable partition detection on a hard disk. That would be nice for fake RAID controllers like I have so that I can avoid error messages about invalid partition tables on the disks in the RAID array.