HDD partition error on startup

[disaksen]

Have an old Gateway M275 laptop a nephew tried to install Win7 on. Installation completed but lapto[p wasw extremely slow because it only had a half gig RAM installed. He said he formatted hhd, then tried to install XP (original OS), but started getting a partition error every time he tried to start the fresh install from CD. I've check hdd on another PC and it gets recognized just fine, but the partition error still exists on the Laptop. Get the same error if trying to boot to Hirem's, Spotmau, or installation CD/DVD (XP or Win7). Bios is set to boot from CD/DVD first. Hirem's and Spotmau should boot at startup, but just get the error meg. Any suggetions that might straighten the issue out?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Please be more specific about the partition error (ie the actual wording of the error message).