So after my last computer breathed its last breath, I got another computer. I've used this computer for a few weeks, installed Intrepid the day it came out, and it's been working great. So I decided to install the hard drive from the last computer. It took an hour of tinkering with the jumper settings before it would recognize there as being two hard drives, the newer one as the master, and the older one as the slave. Now, out of left field, it's not recognizing the dvd burner. I didn't do anything to the cabling for the dvd burner so it doesn't really make any sense to me.

thanks in advance for your help,
pax

Are the HD from the other computer and the DVD drive on the same IDE channel?

What is the jumper configuration on the DVD drive?

What are the possible jumper settings on the HD? (Old HDs typically have master/slave/cable select - but some new(er) HDs have other silly settings).

No, the old HD and the new HD are on the same IDE Cable, the DVD Burner is on its own cable.

I don't know what the jumper settings are on the DVD burner. I could try to find that out if you think it's worthwhile, but I haven't altered them.

And the options on the old hd are "Slave, Master, Cable Select, and Force Dev 1 Present" I don't know what that last one means, and the jumpering is different for 15-pin 16-pin 32-GB-Clip and Auto Spin Disable

It MAY be that adding the second drive has changed the drive designation order and the OS has not picked up that the burner does not have the designation. For instance; when I added a third hard drive my burner went from hdc to hdd(or something close, it has been quite a while).

I don't think that's the case, because my BIOS isn't recognizing it either.

Did you change the channel of the DVD drive at all? If you did, you need to check the jumper settings again.

If the BIOS is not recognizing the drive, then it is definitely a hardware problem (not a linux problem).

Check the Pata cable connections on both ends, followed by the power connection to the drive. Try another pata cable? If it still does not recognize it, pull the power to both of the HD and see if the bios recognizes it then.