making sure it's the CD not hdd

[Rectifier 0]

I recently bought a barebones IP4I865PE DRAGON 2 PLUS from tigerdirect.com, when I got everything I ordered, I put everything together, when I boot everything runs great, when I put in my win98SE CD and started the install, I needed to make the partion, I did that, after it got done formating the partition it said the hdd was incompatible with 98SE, after that I tried my XP CD that came with my dell computer, everything worked except I couldn't get to the actual install part, I reread the dell XP install CD and it said this:

 

Only use this CD to reinstall the operating system on a Dell computer. This CD is not for reinstallation of programs or drivers.

 

 

does this mean that this XP CD was made only for Dell computers and can not work on anyother computers?

 

I also tried Fedora Core 1, and Red Hat 9 and they can't even install, it always says that the installer unexpectedly aborted, any help on that?

 

here is my specs:

 

120gb seagate 7200rpm/2mb cache hdd

2.8ghz intel P4 HT

512MB RAM

nVidia GeForce4 MX400 64Mb video RAM

52x/24x/52x CD-R/RW burner drive

56.6k v.92 modem

8 USB ports

 

if you need any other info please ask.

[adamvjackson 0]

<rant>

 

Why, oh WHY do poeple insist on installing an OS from 6 years ago on NEW hardware??

 

You just bought a bunch of new hardware, you *could have* qualified for an OEM license of Windows XP, which would have been around $100 USD (+/-).

 

No, the Dell XP install CD won't work, and that would also be against your EULA. ALL OEM software is LOCKED to the PC that it came with, it CANNOT be transferred to any other PC, ever.

 

About FC1 and RH9 not installing, did you verify the MD5's of the .isos after downloading? If so, and if you tried booting from disc 2 as well (I recall that some distro(s) actually had disc 2 bootable instead of disc 1) then it may be a hardware issue.

 

Have you tried basic things, such as verifying jumper settings, IDE cables, BIOS settings, etc?

[Rectifier 0]

I tried 98SE because I had it sitting on my desk, and thank you for telling me about the XP CD, and I bought FC1 and RH9 CD's from linuxcd.org I am on dial-up and downloading the iso's would have taken about a month. as for the BIOS, IDE, and jumper settings, I have checked and double checked they are correct.