newbie help installing please

[stg]

Please help, after spending my entire weekend attempting to download and install mandrake 81 I’m at the point where I say Linux is not for me, Ive downloaded it 3 times now from different ftp sites the first one got to where it should start installing and then I got error messages like ( there was an error installing packages cracklib – 2.7-14 mdk . 1586 Go on anyway) and there were a lot of them !
My setup is this
Asus a7v 133
Amd tbird 1.2 266 fsb
Daytona geforce 3
Toshoba DVD
Plextor 12/10/32
30 gig ibm with 98se
60 gig segate with xp pro
adsl internet
768 mb pc-133 ram
:confused:

[Choozo]

Make sure you disable PnP OS, and DMA (for your harddrives) in BIOS prior to starting the installation of Linux.
How's your harddisks hooked up? On the Promise controller in RAID mode, or what? Knowing about these things is an advantage when trying to help out here.

Cheers :)

[stg]

thanks for advice, it was bad downloaded data
I had one final go at downloading it and it went in first time, now if only I can get my adsl up and running on it I will be a happy man ;)

[berb]

you should ALWAYS check the MD5 sums of downloaded software, esp ISOs at 640+megg one bit can be bad and the MD5 sum will catch even that.
Chech http://www.download.com for windows freeware MD5 sum checkers.