Can’t Create NTFS Partition

I have a gateway P4 machine that was running so slowly it was useless. I tried to reinstall the o/s and software from recovery cd’s. It will create the fat32 recovery partition, no problem. But then it hangs, assuming it can’t create the NTFS partition to install XP. I tried installing Windows 98, no problem. Tried installing just the XP o/s, same problem, loads the drivers etc but then hangs, again assuming at the creation of the NTFS partition. I have reset the CMOS and set the BIOS to defaults, tried a new hard drive, same problem.