On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 13:49:05 GMT, (RN)

If FDISK doesn't see the drive, then you have a hardware or BIOS problem!
Presumably the BIOS sees the HD OK?

Well, Noel, cquirke, Mike and anyone else that has tried to help, thanks for your efforts, but I
give up. I'll go out later today and buy a new drive.

If, as I suspect, the problem locus is BIOS addressing, then you will
have to face the same demons with the new HD unless you follow the
voodoo rule I gave you a while back.

And if you are prepared to follow that rule, and don't mind nuking the
HD you already have, no need to buy a new one.

In order to swap HDs between PCs, both PCs MUST use compatible
addressing schemes unless your method of use is proven (by your own
testing) to work around this. For what you are doing, you need to
learn about Auto vs. LBA vs. CHS vs. Normal vs. Large, tho the most
likely end-point will be "force LBA on all PCs before setting up HDs"

I've expended far more time on this than is
warranted and it's not worth any addiditonal effort.

Blindly throwng money at a problem in the hope that it will stick is a
valid tshooting approach (not first choice, but desperate days make
desperate solutions look interesting) but not one that always works.

IOW I'm not knocking your decision here, just a heads-up that you may
find it doesn't squash the hamster under the carpet.

Noel (and the rest), I am convinced that we are dealing with a hardware problem, and the piece of
problem hardware is the 30.7 gig drive -- despite the fact that all SMART tests say the drive is fine.

I think you have the wrong problem locus there - it's more likely bad
settings in CMOS, or a sucky mobo/BIOS.

But I could be wrong, not having followed this thread with the rigor
I'd need to make maximally-dogmatic comments on :-)

snip



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"Verbogeny is one of the pleasurettes of a creatific thinkerizer."
-- Peter da Silva
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