IO Error after V2.2 installation - unable to reinstall V2.1 - Solution

[H.P. Noordam]

I saw the following problem on this list:

After installing 2.2 you are unable to boot on iMac (possible others). A 
I/O error is reported before kernal load etc etc proceed. Also, 
reinstalling V2.1 which worked perfectly before, now fails with the same 
message.

I had the exact same problem, and found a solution that worked for me.

If you use the defautl graphical install, partitions are created for 
you. Even on a brand new disk, somehow the installations adds some more 
partitions that are not visible during install. (you WILL see partitions 
created up to /dev/hda8)

I restarted the installation in text mode, and with more interaction. 
The text mode partition manager allowed removal of ALL partitions, my 3 
and the systems surprise partitions.

After complinting the text mode install, everything worked fine.

Hope this is off some help to others.