At this point, I think that a good step to take would be to download the
utilities from your hard drive manufacturer's website and make the bootable
floppy that they run from.  Most manufacturer's make available a utility for
writing zeros to the drive (it may be referred to as "low level format",
though this is not really the correct term for the procedure).  This may be
the easiest and perhaps best way to make sure that you are starting with a
clean slate when you begin your next try at installing an OS.  Basically,
you'll have a drive returned to as close a condition to that it was in when
it was first bought, as can be achieved, now.

It probably makes sense to go and run the diagnostic utilities that are
available, too.  Might as rule out any hardware problem with your drives
before you get a new OS installed.

John

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