Linux install problem....Help!!

Ok... So I read up on Linux and I decided to do a clean install . I decided to format my hdd with Acronis and from within xp, forgetting Acronis is also on the drive and will be deleting itself in the process! Well of course it deleted itself and when I went to take a look at how things were going, the pc had frozen on reboot as Acronis was supposed to wipe the unallocated space.

Now I've tried to install Ubuntu,Fluxbuntu, Gentoo-(minimal x86) anything that will clean out the drive with no success.

Gparted does not load just keeps looping that it's trying to call Dos.

Emaxx did wipe the drive successfully it said but nothing can install. Only Acronis boot could wipe the disk after Emaxx but XP's chkdsk /p /r all give nonrecoverable errors. XP reinstall gives "Stop 0X0000007B (0XF79E32U, 0XC0000034,0X0000000, 0X0000000). Western Digital (hdd maker) hdd management disks don't seem to work.
:cryI just need something strong to clean out the hdd

 

Ubuntu 8.04 will install INSIDE the Windows enviroment as a shell.

I took in a new CD and wanted to install Open Office 2.4 as we had 2.3 and it does not have the install files like the older version did.

 

Thanks to all of you, I'm now using the shred command on a gentoo minimal cd to clean up the disk so well see....