Complete hard drive screw up

Ok, now my computer's really stuffed. It was working perfectly for over a year when I had Windows 2000 installed. But then I tried Xubuntu 6.06 with the Alternate Install CD dual boot with Win2000. It worked fine except I didn't like it. I thought it was alright so I formatted the whole hard drive and installed Xubuntu 6.06 by itself. Again it worked fine. But after using it for about half an hour I decided I didn't like it. So I formatted the whole drive and installed Win2000. Then I decided to have another shot at Linux and tried to install Ubuntu 6.10 with the Alternate install CD. ut about half way throguh the installation process stopped. So then I completely formatted the whole hard drive again and tried installing Ubuntu 6.10 again but it froze again, but at a different position. I tried once more but the same result, stopping at a different position.

So I got pissed off and decided to stick with Windows. I installed Windows 98 and installed all the drivers and then installed AGV free antivirus. After its installation, it asked to be restarted, so I said yes and it restarted. But after loading Windows, rather than going to the desktop, a sreeen with a Windows backgrous with all screwed up colour was displayed. So I decided to restart the computer and then I went to Safe Mode and uninstalled the antivirus. After a day the computer started having more problems. I couldn't open Internet explorer or My Computer. I also couldn't open any pictures. And everytime I turn the computer it asked to go on to Safe mode saying I didn't Shut down properly (which is false).

So I formatted the whole hard drive, yet again, and tried installing Windows 2000 Pro. After installation, as error screen said that some sort of file with an .inf extention couldn't be copied and asked if I wanted to continue anyway. I clicked no and then tried installing all over again after formatting again. But a blue screen came up before any Windows files were copied to hard drive saying "...if this is the first time you've...." I can't rememeber the exact error. The I tried installing Xp and XP pro, which also stopped midway with the blue screen. Then I tried installing Win 98 and then Xubuntu, but both stopped half way saying files couldn't be copied.

Any idea what's happening to the computer? I've got a 10GB IDE hard drive. Could it be something wrong with the hard drive?

Thank you for any help,