[Luna] trying to install red hat on a used computer, and having problems

[annewittke at infomagic.net]

I am trying to install redhat 7.2 on a computer I
just got from NAU surplus.  It's one that didn't have
any operating system installed, so I'm making it
fully linux.  It has a 20 gb hard drive.  The problem
is, when I tell it to install the software, it's
taking forever.  Last night I let it run over 12
hours before finally turning it off.  I'm trying
again this morning, and this time I had the presence
of mind to cntl-alt-F4 and look at what it is doing.
It's getting a lot of errors.  Over and over again,
it repeats
driveready seekcomplete error
drivestatuserror trackzero not found
There are a lot of lines with 'lost interrupt', but
every once in a while I will see a reset:success in
there.

1) How long should it take to reformat and partition
a 20 gig hard drive?
2) Are all these errors normal, or is this a sign of
a hard drive that is so bad it should be replaced?