I apologize if I wasn't clear as to what I was doing....

The original 80GB drive was removed because the user I got the box from wanted the data on the drive, (WXP, etc.....)
Bought a 2TB drive
Installed Debian 8 from scratch
Then I had the power problem [/CODE][/CODE]
Had a second box that had an 80 GB drive in it.....
Swapped 2 TB for 80GB,
While in process of installing Debian on the 80GB the power problem occurred again.
I have now installed the 2TB in the new box (Dell Dimension E520)

We'll see what happens this time... (LINUX booted on the new box. but it didn't see the NIC, so I'm going to scratch install Debian

This is an experiment in patience.... Rather like toggling in a machine language program on a PDP-11/10....

Yes I go that far back.
The good ol' days....

I'd be tempted to boot it up with a live Linux distribution like Knoppix or Puppy Linux just to make sure all the components are working.

You go back further than me.

I'm interested to hear how it turns out.

OK, here's the scoop....

I had a second Dell desktop (Dimension E520)
Installed the 2TB drive in it
Installed Debian on it (again)
Fired up Debian no problems .

Left it running for about 5 or 6 hours.

Came back and..... it's still running. pressed a key to wake up the screen and everything was there...

Looks like I found a box I can use. (and it's FASTER, with MORE Ram... and I can put a second drive in it)

Overall. I'm good.

Until the next question comes along.....

Thanks for all your input and wisdom!!