try a new IDE cable or if you can take the system offline, and assuming you can boot off cd/floppy I would suggest trying MHDD from http://hddguru.com/ it does some pretty nice low-level diagnostics. I've fixed some disks with this {crosses fingers}
docs are very basic but there's more info on the forum http://forum.hddguru.com/?sid=9996c0fa3656ff12a72b5227b745a49b. floppy and cd .iso here http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2006.02.10-Magic-Boot-Disk/ of course, be aware of what you're doing with these tools. mike
