Installing Ubuntu 9.10 Using CD, on New Harddrive, how long does it take to install, it has been over an hour now?

try rebooting pc with disk still inside

No, it doesn't look normal.
Have you reboot and are in downloading phase of updates ?

Hi :)

It is always best to try a LiveCd with new hardware as the boot-options are quite a lot easier to access and explore
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCd
With the LiveCd running you can install packages if required.

I have a bad feeling that Pata drives are tricky so i tried looking up documentation about this. All i got where these pages
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/RAID1%2BLVM
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man8/hdparm.8.html

It might be a good idea to copy this question into a couple of other forums to widen the number of people likely to see the question. These 2 are good forums
http://www.ubuntuforums.com
http://www.linuxquestions.org
Please copy&paste the links to those threads into here so we can try to help each other with this

It usually takes between 30mins and 1hour to install, depending on cpu speed and ram size. Please could you let us know these 2 specs for the machine and also the amount of hard-drive space you are trying to give Ubuntu?

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

your basic question is how much time it takes to download ubuntu...are you using ubuntu live cd for installation or you are installing ubuntu online ie installing after downloading because this is little tricky...the server from where you are downloading may not be having all files or may be other technical problems so better first install ubuntu 10.04 this is the latest ...first download this and then install it on your machine. there after you can go for updates and upgrades...
regards
rajinder

well had to give it to a friend, couldn't figure it out, hopefully he'll have have better luck!

Hi

You gave or sold the new drive to a friend? Are they buying you a new sata drive in exchange? I hope so. I heard the new line of Seagate drives is good again after a bit of a dip when they took over Maxtor. Perhaps that is just me tho

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Gave it to a Friend who knows more about computers to fix for me!

Ahah, good move :) But hopefully you will soon find that you can solve a lot of problems on your own without needing their help. Once you get linux working on your system you will find plenty of chances to explore and learn and tweak the system to look the way you prefer :)

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)