Hi Brad.

Actually, your boot log looks exactly like mine looked before I sent my MkIIa in for repair. Like in your boot log, the kernel was unable to find the CS4132A chip. I hope he doesn't mind that I quote the following part from an email he sent me:

The CS4231A chip was indeed faulty. Apparently if this chip fails it can
affect other systems, such as IDE - although I'm not quite sure of exactly
how.

So, in my opinion, you should contact him. I don't think your drives are failing.
And yes, you can reflash the kernel even if the linux kernel doesn't find any harddisc. Remember that the (serial port) flash process is controlled by the boot loader which happens to be the same piece of software that loads the kernel and starts it. So flashing the kernel via RS232 isn't affected by any kernel troubles.

cu,
sven