system hangs on; "Probing devices, please wait (this can take a while)... "

[Rich]

I'm trying to boot on the 9.0 Current or 8.0 Release CD to  install and it just 
hangs on;

"Probing devices,  please wait (this can take a while)... "

I've waited almost an hour. how long is it supposed to take? It would be nice if 
there were a status bar or spinning wheel or something to let you know if it's 
doing anything or hung. What can I do to get this to install.

AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core 2.20 GHz
2G RAM

Drive:
Seagate ST31000333AS