Fedora 2 install error. Attempt to read sectors...

[ZeusZeus]

Hi,

I booted from CD (FC2 disk1 came with Linux Format), set up my partitions(see below), selected some packages to install and press ok to go ahead.
Then, I got the following error messages.
(1) "Attempt to read sectors 2-3 outside of partition on /dev/hda".
(1) "Attempt to read sectors 0-7 outside of partition on /dev/hda".
And then installation was aborted and the current OS XP still works.
Has anyone got any ideas?

Background info:
===========
DELL PC: 1GB ram, Pentium4, 2.2GHz, single 114GB HD, current os=XP

Partitions viewed from FC2:
==================
hda1 vfat 31MB => partition indicates that this is DELL Utitlity. So I made no change here.
hda2 ntfs 41GB => currently XP resides here.
hda3 Extended => should this be a primary partion? If I do, then will it be visible from XP?
hda5 ntfs 30GB => future versions of XP/NT/other OS will go here.
hda6 swap 2GB => the swap partition for Fedora Core 2 will go here.
hda7 ext3 20GB => Fedora Core 2 will go here.
freespeace 20GB => plan to install any future versions linux here.

note: hda4 was not shown while installing Fedora Core 2.

Thank you in advance.

[imdeemvp]

did you did use a third party software to create your linux partitions? but i am also thinking it could be your dell utility partition that will prevent fedora from installing the bootloader in the mbr...

compaqs have the same time of setups and it is a problem....

[ZeusZeus]

Initially, I had only two partitions the dell(31MB) and NTFS(114Gb, XP). So, I used Partion Magic 7 to reduce the size of the NTFS partition to 41Gb etc. XP seems to be ok. The other NTFS partition(hda5 ntfs 30GB ) can seen from XP - it's the D: drive now.

So, what's the best way to go about fixing this to install FC2? I see a few options.
a) delete all partitions except dell and the first NTFS throuth FC2 .
b) use another partitioning? can anyone recomend any good partitioning tool?
c) worst case. get rid of everything and start fresh. install XP first etc...

Any other ideas? i prefer not to do (c) at the moment.

Thanks

[imdeemvp]

to be honest....since you posted a multiple choice questions here is my answer: C

do you have your xp cd? then do a major backup! the dell utillity will not let fedora write in the mbr so you have no choice IF you really want to use fedora!

have you tried installing another distro such as mandrake? and see if you get same error?