Alright, my display has the no hard disk found message, and I get a wonderful clicking noise upon boot of the unit. The IDE cable has already been replaced, and it sounds like one of the two disks boot up happily, although I think the primary has failed.

On the shell boot, it probes for disks and finds none, so I may be subject to a fujitsu drive failure. Is there any way I can absolutely confirm this? Is there a warranty on these drives I can use?

Thanks everyone...

Before you assume drive failure, read through all of the possible causes here.

Just finished walking through them all; everything appears to be status quo. Now what can I do?

Did you actually check everything or just read the list? For instance, did you open the player and remove the disk tray and wiggle the connector and look closely to make absolutely sure it wasn't the IDE header solder joint problem? Are you certain you've never exposed the disk drives to extreme temperatures? (etc.)

If so, and if you're really sure that nothing else on the list is the culprit, then yeah, I'd say that an actual disk drive failure is a serious possibility.

I'd say that an actual disk drive failure is a serious possibility

If the drive is making nasty clicking noises and it wasn't doing it before, I would highly suspect the drive itself. Although, most drives that make the "click of death" don't work intermittently. They usually don't work at all.

*EDIT* just reread your post and realized the drive isn't working intermittently. You can probably get an RMA for the drive at the manufacturer website if it is less than 3 years old. Be aware that they may not do that with OEM drives though.