i am new to debian and all of linux for that matter. i am trying to set up debian 3.1 on an old PII. i currenty have 2 hard drives that have been compleatly erased. i downloaded the debian CD image. and atempetd to install. i configured the bios to boot from the cd drive however every time i do it does not work. i know that the cd drive works. i think it might be the file. my file i downloaded was call debian-31r0a-i386-netinst and was a iso file. which was about 100mb in size and i burned it to a cdrw.

How did you burn the downloaded iso? Did you burn is "Image" or as an Iso file. In order for the cd to be bootable you need to burn it as "Image". In other word when you check the contents of the CD you should see lots of files rather than a single ISO file

i first tryed to sue the "image" that did not work. after reading your message i extracted the files to my drive and then burned them to a cd. still the system failed. it should be noted that none of the drives on the new computer are formatted or partitioned. does that have something to do with my problem if it does how do i go about fixing it

Sorry atkkil you mis understood my post. DON'T extract the files. When you burn Iso images, under recording options you need to select the "Burn Image" option. This will automatically extract the files directly on to your CD and also make that cd Bootable. For example if you are using NERO to burn your disc, go to your "Recorder" option on the menu, scroll down to "Burn Image" and select. Navigate to where you downloaded your Iso image and click Burn. When burn complete, just reboot from it. As for the Hard drives you will need to Partition and format it to install.

And don't use a CDRW. Be sure and burn at a low speed also.