HELP!!!

I am brand new to Linux and have very little knowledge of boot problems.

I tried to Install Mandrake 10.1 on an old computer with a Seagate 10Gb hard drive - No other OS is on the system but windows was on it previously.

After agreeing to the license agreement I get a message saying:

"NO VALID DEVICES WERE FOUND ON WHICH TO CREATE NEW FILESYSTEMS. PLEASE CHECK YOUR HARDWARE FOR THE CAUSE OF THIS PROBLEM."

I have checked similar threads but have not found a solution that I understand.

Can anyone help - PLEASE!

Phil

Is the harddisk recognized by the bios? If so then try booting with
a linux live cd like Knoppix and see if you can see the hard drive
there. Try "fdisk /dev/hda" from a console.