[Harkonan]

that will be very annoying, as ill have to get some new optical drives. the HDD isnt such an issue as its old and only has windowsa and a few programs on it.
i just find it a bit coincidental that they all died at the same time and *whilst* i was isntalling a new component. im guessing and thing with the PSU would have to be a drastic problem and wouldnt happen without me knowticing. so im wondering what could have caused it.

[RicoDirenzo]

Did you ground yourself before wokring on the computer? Static electricity is the enemy of all repair attempts. I not only gorund myself but wear thin rubber gloves (you can buy them at the auto parts store for $12 for 100 pair!!) to prevent component a failure do static discharge. It doesn't take much to destroy a HD/CDrom controller chip, mobo, or other plug in component board!!!

[Harkonan]

im a real bad boy for that stuff. never do it, even though i know i should.
what would i have had to touch on the CD drives to kill em with static?

[RicoDirenzo]

The controller boards, for example: here are the results of IDE 0 and IDE1 use of HD's. This relates only to XP as that is the system I tested. You can only use a hd with an 80 wire IDE cable. If the drive is the master on the secondary IDE channel, the system finds it but the optical drive CD/DVD goes bye bye and the HD is not accessable. If you put the HD in as a slave the system finds the drive but it is not accessable and the optical master is. If you use cable select, same deal. I removed the upper and lower filters in each case and NADA........no readable HD could be found on the secondary IDE channel. Verdict: No soap.

[Harkonan]

heres what the guy in question has to say about it.

[16:55] -: Sky~hog:- . (dodgy Connection): can you give me a direct account of how you three HDD drives are pluged in?
[16:59] Úlliot° ҳ̸Ҳ̸ҳ âlu€arD: umm
[16:59] Úlliot° ҳ̸Ҳ̸ҳ âlu€arD: ok
[17:00] Úlliot° ҳ̸Ҳ̸ҳ âlu€arD: 1 spinpoint in slave, 1 maxtor on master both plugged into port 1 on mobo
[17:00] Úlliot° ҳ̸Ҳ̸ҳ âlu€arD: maxtor 2 plugged into master and cd drive plugged into slave on port 2 on mobo

im certain its working on his, thou this may be mobo varabul.
im 90% certain that ive killed the drives now, and ive got another one from my dad to see if i can get it to work.
ill let you know how that goes.