Windows ignores it...Linux doesn't

Hey guys,
I am trying to dual boot my laptop, which I have done in the past. I formatted my hd to start fresh.

I have Windows XP Pro and I wanted to dual boot with either Suse or Mandrake. I install windows fine, but when I go to install linux on the partition I made for it, it gives me a disk error.

In my opinion, I have a bad sector towards the end of my disk where I am trying to install linux. When I was running windows xp pro and filled up the disk, I believe windows xp just ignores the bad sector and works around it. Opposing to linux, it will not ignore it since linux is trying to install the OS on that bad sector.
I was thinking of getting some kind of hard drive analyzer to find out for sure if I have a bad sector.
You guys recommend any I should use?
I hope I don't have a bad sector, since this is a laptop hd and it will be a pain to send it out and get it replaced. (I believe its still under warranty, but with my luck it won't be)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks guys!

ZiPPy

hi zippy,

Quoting the exact error message from the installation wizzard would help (you can possibly get more comprehensive information if you switch to the first screen -ctrl+alt+F1- where normally the xserver and the installation program will send their output). Personally I don't think you have a surface damage on your disk as I am pretty sure if you did windows wouldn't let it pass (you said you have filled the disk under windows, right?). Unless it was marked at the filesystem as bad sector from a scan program, the OS would try to write data there and fail noticeably. If it is indeed a bad sector any program including windows scandisk will find it.

Still, it's difficult to make any guess without the exact error message

hey nske, I apologize I should of posted the EXACT error message. I am at work at the moment so I wasn't able to get the exact error message. When I go home tonight I will boot it up again and give it a try.

I forgot to add, I tried both Mandrake and Suse and recieved the same error.

Thanks for responding so soon.

ZiPPy

If you think there are any bad sectors, may be you should run Scandisk which usually marks sectors that are bad and if you install OS, it will not use them.

Also, a Low-Level Formatting may be something that you could look into. I'm sure you will backup your data in case if you go for it.

I don't know the manufacturer of your HDD, but below are some links I found.

IBM(Hitachi)
www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate
www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html

Maxtor
www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/index.htm

Fujitsu
www.fel.fujitsu.com/home/drivers.asp?L=en&CID=1

Samsung
www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/index.htm
FAQ: Low level format

Western Digital
support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

Hope it helps.