ok,
i have tried the second ide port and i get the same response , twice a second flash on the disk light ... i tried moving the jumpers (they were set to single drive master) , swapped to slave .. not detected , swappd to cable select , same problem twice a second flash
the only thing i have not done exactly to to your instructions misterbill is i dumped the binary to the drive using knoppix with the drive setup via an external usb caddy and not via an internal ide port , should tthis really make any difference ..??
any more ideas folks ...!