New to Linux, Need some advice please.

[Vish06]

I'm trying to install Mandriva 2007. But at the beginning of the installation, where the partitioning begins, i'm receiving an error:

An error occurred
ext3 formatting of sda1 failed.

the Hard disk I want to use is an IDE Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 9 250gb,
the jumper is set to master.
I have two drives and both display error messages.

I have a Samsung 160gb and that works fine.

is there a problem with the Maxtor drives?

I would be grateful for any help.

Vish06

[fingal]

Not sure of the solution exactly, but I did once read that Maxtor drives can cause issues when there's a secondary hdd which isn't another Maxtor.