Quote:

I unplugged and reconnected the cables but still got the IDE failure tests in the log.
By coincidence I upgraded to hijack 461 from 448 and the IDE failures are gone.I downgraded back to 448 to see if failure notice was still there and it was.Then upgraded back to 461 and they were gone.


No, the messages are still there, they just lack the "FAILED" text that I nuked from recent Hijack versions (see the changelog, if you like).

All that really matters is whether it finds the drive or not at the end of it all. It looks like sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not work. Flakey hardware. Changing the software won't help here.
Quote:

Does that mean my drive is good or maybe on its way out?


Not likely at all. Much more probable is a bad connection somewhere, almost certainly on the cable crimps or the mainboard IDE header. Same as for 99.99% of all other cases of this happening to anyone else here.

Cheers