[arch-general] Problems with install Iso

[richard terry]

Hullo all,

I tried to ask this a couple of days ago and for some reason it ended up as
a flame war about chakra between people I don't even know and I'm not sure
what triggered it, so I'll try again.

I've used arch for many years and always been happy (I actually run it on
5-6 machines which I maintain ok).

My laptop got a libreadline file problem after upgrading, so after backing
up I just decided to reformat the drive the the latest arch linux iso I
downloaded last weekend intending hence to use kde4.3, and have been
spectacularly unsuccessful in getting the drive formatted using the install
iso.

with the /arch/setup program I tried auto to do the whole drive (it was a
brand new seagate 500gig HDD) > no action, just sat there.

I tried using CFDISK > create partitions > then the setting the mount points
didn't recognise any partitions were there. After a couple of reboots and
retries it did recognise the partition was there, but wouldn't let me
allocate mount points. On one occasion it allowed me to allocated mount
points but then just died.

To prove to myself that it wasn't the drive I tried the chakra alpha on it
which recognised the partitions and installed ok but this I've removed as I
want arch proper.

I'm at a loss to know where to head because this is my software developement
machine (private not in any way related to a business) and I've been reduced
to using xfce4 (not that bad actually) on an old drive, but all my email is
in kmail (7+ years of it) which I don't want to have to import into
thunderbird and kmail won't run on the machine with the corrupted
installation.

So, is there anyone who could give me a hint as where to proceed - I've
tried re-downloading the iso and reburning it and the md5's are ok. Rescue
disks or Knoppix read the partitions fine.

Is there any way I can paritition and format with an external tool, then use
the command line to install a base arch system so I can bypass the
installer?

Any help, even if you answer off list would be appreciated.

Regards

Richard