Mandriva 2009 Gnome Not Installing on HDD Hack

I've tried all the tutorials but I can't get Mandriva 2009 Gnome to install on an A110. It was originally SSD (on which Mandriva installed fine), but I replaced the SSD with a Samsung HSO81HA 80 gig HDD and neither the CD (external DVD RW) nor the USB install methods do anything. I can input date/time/location, then it plays the startup music, but then nothing. This hard drive previously ran Windows XP (still too slow and the sound stuttered), and currently has Fedora 10 on it to see if the NTFS file system was getting in the way. Still nothing. I don't want to go back to the SSD because it's too small.

 

I've switched to Easypeasy (Ubuntu 8.10-derived distro). I like it better than Mandriva (even with the netbook remix interface). It's pretty fast and most things seem to work about as well if not better/faster than Mandriva. Feel free to find an answer to my original question if it will help others.

Spec Update: I run an AAO110 with a Samsung 80 gig HS081ha HDD and 1 gig extra Samsung ram for 1.5 gig total

 

Try installing XP again to see if it will install. The hard drive may be corrupted. If XP will install then you should get a new copy of Mandriva 2009 Gnome because the copy you have could be corrupted. Will the external DVD boot with the Live CD and work like it should just failing with the installation?