Ok i searched the forum as well as google for my problem and couldnt find anyone with the same problem as i have...which makes me think im in trouble on this one.
first ill set the stage, ive reformatted my system quite a few times and switched out a mobo once so i had to call microsoft and reset my cd key which is fine, but recently after my last install, (ordered new HDD and formatted so i could raid it with another) it told me i had 3 days to activate which i thought i already had so i disregarded it. after three days it wouldnt even let me in windows so i finally have had enough of microsoft and used my laptop to download and create a boot cd of Ubuntu to give that a try.
heres where i get stupid: my motherboard had two "EZ-Raid" sata ports that i used to raid my HDD so i didnt want my raid anymore and couldnt get into windows to format or remove the raid so i shut off my comp and plugged them into my normal ports and assumed linux would ask me to format the hard drives and partition them much like windows does when doing a fresh install....but i cant figure out how or if it does this at all, and it wont install, it just gives me a long list of I/O errors on a long list of sectors.
Can anyone please help???