install on laptop

I use Parted Magic (Which runs in RAM) to partition my hard disks. It also has some HD testing apps on it. You could give that a try, but, it really does sound like you have a hardware problem. You can download Parted Magic here:
http://distrowatch.com/index.php?distribution=partedmagic&month=July&year=2011
It's always worth giving it a try, who knows, you may be able to revive the disk by reformatting it.

Hey here is what I found the config. about your laptop (via some Google search):

HP pavilion5150 - Product Specifications
Processor Intel® Pentium® III Processor 600MHz
Included Drives: 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive, DVD-ROM, Hard Drive
Hard Drive 10GB
DVD Rom 8X Read Speed
Memory 64MB Maximum of 256MB
Display 13.3" TFT-Active Matrix. 1280 x 1024 Screen Resolution
Communication Fax/Modem Integrated with 10/100 Ethernet 56K KBps Modem Speed
PCI Ethernet 100/10Mbps Network Card
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® ME


So I understand it is understandably quite old. Here are my clear suggestions which work:

TRY Fedora Core-1 (avoid Fedora Core-2)
If not , else Try RedHat -9 Distro (it is the old last redhat series before Fedora)
Also you can try SuSE (check a Suse distribution around 5-6 years old).
SuSE is great as a desktop at that time.
Hope this helps.

If possible upgrade your RAM, actually you can get a old RAM quite cheap in a laptop service center. (ofcourse you cannot get in a shop to buy a new one in most cases).

You can install puppy linux, DSL (Damn small Linux), and so on, but they are live distributions, so I am not sure it will help you.

Cheers, Kiran (Author/Founder: TrafficSqueezer Linux Kernel WAN Optimization Solution - www.trafficsqueezer.org)