Heheh... Yes, I know there are solid state drives... For about a gagillion dollars/pounds/euros.... (for any reasonable capacity). I thought that Seagate or someone had been experimenting with some "automotive spec" drives - i.e. lower temp, additional shock protection. I can't seem to find any info about them.

Anyway, I took the advice and ripped apart the player. I pulled out the IDE cable, and looked closely (while flexing) and lo-and-behold, it's not crimped all the way. Close, but not all the way. So I set it on my desk, and re-crimped it using a flat object and my own weight. I did all three, and they are very crimped now :-)

Back in the player, and after a lengthy media check, NO irq errors or HD not found messages. THANKS. I had read that FAQ before, and even 'checked' when replacing the drives, but unless you REMOVE the cable and really look, it looks fine....

On a side note, it would be "cool" if we could replace hda with a low-capacity (whats the minumum needed?) flash drive, and have the player still "work" (sans mp3s) if hdb failed to spin up. Since I use the empeg for radio as well, when its down, Im in silence....

Thanks again, and thoughts on that last paragraph?