Problems

ok, i recently lost everyting on my comoputer because it crashed. i then decided that it was time to try linux, and i tried to boot ubutnu with no success. i gave up and re-installed tiger. but i left about 30 gigs on my harddrive for my next linux distro. OpenSuse 10.1. well, i tried to install suse on it, and it didnt work. some error i dont remember. anything i decided that there was nothing on my mac and i wanted to try linux on my computer again so i decided to partion my whole harddrive. well i got half way though the installing process and the d*** thing froze......ok.....

well i decied to try it a couple more times. finally i decied f*** it, i'm going to put mac back on and not even screw it it anymore. i went to install it and there is only 37mb left on my harddrive. ok i went to the disk ult. and tried to delete my whole haarddrive. didnt work. it froze. i decided to try that a couple more times. no go. now i'm starting to get a little angry at the computer. i decide to try one more time at linux, maybe from some freak accident i screwed up somehwere so i put the install cd back in and it tells me that there are bad sectors on my harddrive. now, is that true and do i need to sent it back to apple to get a new harddrive. or worse case buy a new one? i'm still protected under their apple care for another year. i'm on a ibook g4. if there is anything i left out please tell me. sorry for such a long update, i just want to find out what is up with my computer.

Do you have your original Apple Discs? If so, put the installation DVD #1 in your drive and hold down the 'D' key while booting. Run the AHT 'extended mode' diagnostics on the machine. Any errors reported?

i cant hold down the D key, for some reason my cd's dont have it. but i do have a hardware cd and it came back, all my hardware passed.......its weird

Boot from your install cd (insert osx cd, restart while holding down 'C'), once at the install window after you select your language find disk utility in the top menu bar. Click on repair disk and then it should fix it for you.

see the thing is, i've tried that. i tried to write zeros over my data but it said it would take 121 hours, which is wayyyy too long. i then deleted my harddrive and i can install mac on it, its just i really want linux to run on my mac, i just wanna try something new because i'm so used to tiger/mac in general. any other ideas? if not i think i'm just going to give up lol

thanks

I'm at a similar point in my frustration...

My HD crashed, I bought a new one (cause I took the old one out so I could take it through a recovery app or store) and reformatted so I could get SUSE up & running.

If your HD is already wiped, use the disk utility on the Mac boot CD you have & use it to repartition (small boot part, Mac OS part, & a Linux part).

Once you've done that, hopefully you can tell me where to go. Im having issues with trying to ensure if I made the right format of partitions & where to go from there cause my SUSE CDs won't boot. I know there's something to do in the Open Source from there but that's where my knowledge of code draws a line.

We might be able to help each other out, let me know how your trials turn out.

~Jason~