"Formatting of failed" and "Opened disk read

[shoka]

I've windows XP on my hd with 2 partitions, freed 8GB of unallocated space intended to install knoppix.

ran knoppix-installer, try to install, get "formatting of failed" error. Then I proceed to make partition, chose my HD (only 1 choice as I only have 1 physical HD), then I get the "Opened disk read only - You do not have permission to write) error.

Tried sudo cfdisk, created a ext-3 partition using all 8GB, went back to knoppix-installer and still got the same 2 errors

Please help

[fingers99]

I think your "unallocated space" may, in fact, be formatted ntfs. IIRC you can check on this through Windows and even format it fat32 (which cfdisk and knoppixwill have no issues with).

[shoka]

how can i check if the unallocated space are formatted?
I had tried to format the free space manually through cfdisk to ext-2 and swap (made 2 partitions here) then go back to knoppix-installer but still get the same error.
should I delete these 2 partitions so the free space are formatted as linux supported type?