Installer doesn't, dies writing inodes.

["Lee Monamy" <cit@itl.net>]

Hi there.

I have a problem with Debian -- it won't install. It hangs at 
"Writing inode tables: 27/76" after selecting and setting up new 
partitions from within cfdisk. Hardware is as follows:

Asus P2L-N NLX motherboard (440LX chipset)
Slot 1 Celeron 333
2x64MB DIMMs
New Fujitsu MPF3102AT 10.2GB drive
NE2000 compatible PCI NIC

I have attempted to run bad block scans on the drive from within the 
installer; this crashes with a kernel panic. I've also tried to zero 
the disk by doing "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda1"; this causes a 
Segmentation fault. The drive checks out OK according to the Fujitsu 
quick and comprehensive tests, SMART is enabled in the BIOS (same 
result with it disabled), the RAM works fine in another machine, even 
tried a new IDE cable. No joy. I also tried recreating the boot disks 
from two different sources onto two sets of unused floppies. There is 
no CDROM drive in the machine as I want to do a network install and 
don't have a USB CDROM handy (although I imagine it isn't bootable 
anyway).

I give up. Any suggestions welcome.

Lee