A user in our local linux user group http://www.setxlug.org/ had had a problem installing linux to his Laptop's HD. No linux would format his HD
Well... I told him that sense he had nothing to loose, why not try a knoppix hd install.
We tried it at the same meeting and a few min. later he had a fully working linux on his hd.
Knoppix has the best hardware detection I have ever seen in either the windows or linux world.