Comment 35 for bug 172937

I had the same scenario as Rob York and can confirm that changing IDE mode to "Compatible" in the BIOS fixes the install issue (I had already tested my memory and the installation disc and both were fine). I have also been able to change the IDE mode back to "Enhanced" after installing (otherwise my existing windows installation won't boot).

It appears that in some newer laptops the optical drive uses SATA instead of PATA and the installer can't handle it properly. I have had this problem with 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04, but I've only tried this fix with 9.04