Debian Hurd Installer problems

[Alex Sassmannshausen]

Hello,

I'm trying to install the Hurd on an old i386 laptop I have at home. I'm
for now using the Debian installer (7 Jan release, CD 1), and run into
the following problem:
- Text Install proceeds until Keyboard setup. This step, upon selecting
the layout, consistently fails. 
- Proceeding onto the next step, mounting the CD-Rom, I get the
following error:

hd0: irq timeout: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
hd0: irq timeout: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete }
hd0: irq timeout: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
ide0: reset: success
hd0: irq timeout: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete }
hd0: irq timeout: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete }
hd0: irq timeout: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete }
hd0: irq timeout: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
ide0: reset: success
hd0: irq timeout: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete }
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00, sector 2

- Alternatively, when I execute a shell from within the installer the
  shell launches, but no /target directory exists (not at root, nor at
  /media/target or at /mnt/target). When I do
$ ls /dev/ 
I get the same error as above.

I guess there is some problem accessing the hard drive, which still
works though has one or two bad sectors — I'm running some tests on it
now.

Could there be anything I could look at to resolve this issue? Or can I
provide any other information that might help clarify whether this is a
bug somewhere?

Best wishes,

Alex