Unable to install an operating system

I'm posting here because I think my problem is linked to the gear.

I got a PC:
- Intel Celeron 500 Mherz
- 384 RAM 256 128 check with memtest
- A new battery

I tested with several different HD, but no way to successfully install an operating system.
- With Mandrake Linux, it crashes systematically when formatting / partition.
- With Windows XP, it does not exceed the stage to start the installation. It restarts automatically and once it fails 2 load a CD.

I change the CD without success.
I must say that I hack the power cables in order to connect a second HD, but I see no reason why the AC would mostly I try with a single HD. (HD and verify that I walk precise).

Thank you in advance!

Hi,

You have 2 hard drives, so as you put riders? (Small rings to place on the hard drives as master and slave)

I think 1 should be sufficient hard disk to boot, but it is old? (This may be the cause)

And CDs, you have tried other?

Finally on this PC, I finally found a solution. I put the SD in another PC which I used to install Windows XP without problem. I then issued the HD in the first machine that was crashing and it worked. Then I installed Xubuntu, but that's another story ...

By against, I have recently recovered another PC INTEL 1.5 GHz, 256 RAM. I bought a misery, thinking it did not work but it does, replacing the RAM correctly. He had a 3 GB SD with Windows 98.
I tried to replace the AA by a 40 GB and install XP but again, impossible! This time it I had a lot of installation files that were unable to copy to disk.
So I took the same technique, I installed XP without problem on DD 1 through another PC and I put it in another. However, the DD correctly that boot XP on another computer refuses to do so on this one.

I conclude that this is not an issue ... SD But by that, I'm not too advanced.
So if you have an idea ...

In fact, you can not normally move a hard drive from one configuration to another as easily. It poses problems of pilots and others.

In the first case, you were lucky, the configuration should be similar sensibility, which did not lead to a problem of the coup. But in the second case, it seems that some points of the hardware are different, resulting in a refusal to boot.

Yes in the first case, the 2 computers were exactly the same model.
It necessarily comes from the PC since I use the same CD and install the same CD-ROM without problem with other people.

how to successfully install Windows XP?