Pygmy Linux on a 386

[SFIKE at twa.com]

I tried installing Pygmy Linux on my friends old 386 machine with mixed
results this weekend.
Everything on the installatin process went okay except when the files where
extracting themselves onto the hard drive (I used floppies, no CD-ROM in
this machine), I noticed that the last extractions say "write error". Then
when Linux tried to load up, about half way through the load up procedure it
got stuck in what I call, for the possible lack of a better term, a "feed-back
loop". The hard drive just sat there grinding away with a loud "chatter,
chatter, chatter" sound. That's as far as the loading proccess would go. The
thing would still be sitting there to this minute in this "feed-back loop" if
I hadn't hit the power switch. I don't know if the "write error" happening
when the files were extracting themselves onto the hard drive has anything to
do with this problem or not. Maybe somebody can shed some light on this for
me.
This old box had Windows 3.10 in it. I used FDISK and nuked it (that's all
Windows is good for anyway: nuke fodder), so Pygmy Linux could have the
entire hard drive (all 76MB of it) to itself.
If it hadn't been for all this, I think Pygmy Linux would have loaded up and
ran just fine. For a newbie, I came pretty close, but close doesn't count.

Thanks in advance,
Scott