Hello! I'm new to this forum.

I'll give them a shot. I feel like I'm doing something wrong. When I tried to boot Ubuntu and LinuxMint it just sat at a wallpaper with a mouse and didn't go past that. Any other ideas? I've been using Windows 7 image burner to make the cds.
 
ImgBurn ( http://www.imgburn.com/ )is a good program with which to burn ISO images onto CD. Choose 8X as burn speed as a rule of thumb, to facilitate error-free burning.

I believe Run => cmd and entering "md5sum distroname.iso" can be used within Windows to check the downloaded file against its reported md5sum hash before burning.

SystemRescueCD 1.3.5 ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/systemrescuecd/files/sysresccd-x86/1.3.5/ ) is a useful tool good for cleaning up and partitioning the hdd prior to install. After booting to the CD and hitting Enter a few times for "default," at the multi-colored prompt on the page asking User to type either "startx" or "wizard," type in the dd command which will wipe the hdd with zeros:

PHP: 
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=4096 conv=notrunc,sync

When done (about 25-35 minutes for an 80GB hdd), four lines ending in "XX mb/s" will be seen. At the same prompt enter the command "startx" which will bring up a yellow-colored command terminal. In this teminal type in "gparted" and begin patitioning the hard drive.

Best wishes!
 
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After it initially boots, and goes through the whole searching and mounting I get this response:

!!Media not found
!!Could not find CD to boot, something else needed!!
!!Running a mini shell (cannot complete the boot process)

/bin/ash: can't access tty; job control turned off
#
 
" . . . I am having trouble fixing an old Compaq Presario desktop. . . . Now when it boots it says it is missing NTLDR . . . "

Two questions:
1) are you still receiving the "NTLDR missing" message when trying to boot XP? *
2) does the desktop have a 3.5" floppy drive?

FYI: I once ran into a Compaq (before HP bought it out) that required a maddening sequence of first loading the Recovery Disk then the Installation Disk then back to the Recovery Disk and finally back to one or the other before installation was allowed. Also had to reinitilize the CMOS via jumpers at some point. If such is the case and it is still desired to keep the old compaq, I regretfully recommend taking up HP Rep on her offer.
-------------------------------------------
* One can feasibly fix the NTLDR is why I ask
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is "it" oin 5:52 in 5:52 PM post?
 
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Hit "delete" or other key designated to get to BIOS and change "Boot Priority" to cdrom first, disable "Bootup Floppy Seek" and hit F10 to "Save and Exit"

reboot to system rescue cd and perform the above dd command
 
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I would physically remove the hdd and use another PC to perform the dd command -- using sysresccd, wipe the hdd with zeros, partition and install distro -- then physically install in old Compaq and see what happens.
 
I thought of doing that. But, I don't think I have a similar hookup. The HDD's in my current computers all use SATA, this one doesn't. It uses some huge ribbon. Any suggestions on that?
 
Yeah -- see here

It's an IDE (ribbon) to SATA adapter. There is one w/o the SATA data cable here, too.

BTW, this is the best online site to buy cable and adapters at that I have found.
 
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