troubled installations

[René]

> Am 17.03.2006, 13:01 Uhr, schrieb Avraham Hanadari  
> <hanadari at zahav.net.il>:

> I have tried to install Ubuntu or Kubuntu twice. Unfortunately both
> times there was such a catastrophic result that I had to reformat my
> hard disk. I do not want this to happen again, so I am imploring you to
> help me. I really do want to get started learning the system.
>
> Here's what happened both times. The installation of 5.1 in a dual boot
> with my XP Home went without a hitch. Or so I thought. I was able to
> work within both Ubuntu or Windows after choosing at boot-up.
>
> I have my hard disk partitioned in C: NTFS for XP, and two other data
> partitions. (By the way, I never did succeed in mounting the data
> partitions for access from Ubuntu!) When I viewed the partitions later
> using Partition Magic 8 in Windows, instead of the partitions I expected
> to see plus the Linux ones, all I saw was a long "mask" covering the
> entire HD and labeled BAD.
>
> Since both OS's worked, in spite of the "BAD" label, I was able to save
> everything before the reformatting, but I would prefer a clean
> partitioning, as I have been able to achieve with Fedora and Suse. With
> the mask in place, I cannot resize the partitions or otherwise work with
> the disk. I suspect this has something to do with not being able to see
> the data partitions and mount them in Ubuntu.

hello Avraham
for what ever reason, to me it sounds like a 'mixed salad' on the  
harddisk, or even some hardware failure.
as i do not know much about how to 'check and repair' failures on a  
harddisk (except to use tools you have in Windows itself), i would start  
once again in the following way:
0. save your data (you told, you have done that successfully)
1. use 'dban' (search it on the internet) to format your harddisk on a  
much deeper level
if the outgoing is fully successful:
2. install once again Windows (it has to be installed before Ubuntu).
3. use software tools in Windows (maybe you also find some free software  
on the internet) to check your harddisk as thouroughly as possible
4. do not make any partition for the upcoming Ubuntu installation (Ubuntu  
will do it itself during the installation)
5. install Ubuntu
that does not sound simple, thats what i would do, but i guess in this way  
it can come to work.
regards,
René
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