Unless you've already wiped the drive, try some of these live cds first..
IF your a newbie to linux, I recommend simplymepis. It's a live cd that can be installed also. After it boots into KDE you see an icon on the desktop that says install me, click on it, and follow the prompts. It will copy the cd to the HD and you'll have a full linux install in 30 minutes or less.. Knoppix is also a nice live cd, both of which are debian based.
http://knoppix.org/
http://www.mepis.org/