thanks for all the good advice. while the section to which you linked was very well put together, that wasn't it. (i checked the IDE cables just to be sure)

i could hear the drive making horrible spin up/spin down sounds as well as variety of awful clicks. when i removed the one old disk and just left the newer drive in there, all was great. i've just ordered a replacement drive (putting in a 40 GB toshiba now) and will rock and roll with the car2-builder-20011022.upgrade image when it gets here.