I just recently upgraded a friends computer to the following components:

Case : Antec SX1040BII
Power Supply : Antec 400W, w/ 2 Fans Built-in
Case Fans : 2 Antec Standard, 2 Antec SmartPower
HDD : WD 7200, 80GB Caviar
MB : SOYO KT333 DragonUltra (Platinum)
CPU : AMD Athlon XP 2000+ /266
RAM : 256MB Kingston PC2100 DDR

Pre-existing components:

Video : ATI Rage Pro (AGP)
Floppy - Mitsumi
CDRW - Verbatim?, no other identifying marks
JAZ Drive Connected VIA SCSI PCI Card

Previously, the HDD was getting extremely HOT while attempting to perform Win2K Installation and the Installation would never take. See Thread Here. (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18256)

The problem that seems to repeat throughout this process is that the HDD is intermittently detected during boot. By this I mean that when it is listing the IDE Devices it may or may not detect it.

IE.

<code>
Detecting IDE Devices...

Primary Master No Device Found
Primary Slave No Device Found
Secondary Master VB08-09CD (Not the exact string, but its the CDRW)
Secondary Slave No Device Found

or

Detecting IDE Devices...

Primary Master WD80-xxx (Not the exact string, but its the HDD)
Primary Slave No Device Found
Secondary Master VB08-09CD (Not the exact string, but its the CDRW)
Secondary Slave No Device Found

</code>

I have run the disk diagnostics from Western Digital successfully at least twice. Even if the boot up doesn't detect the HDD the boot diagnostics do. It also seems to take an extremely long time to boot. My time comparison is based on my machine which is running a 900Mhz Duron. Even loading into the diagnostic disk (Caldera DOS) takes an extended period of time.

Any suggestions as to what might be causing the intermittent HDD detection? This seems to be what is causing the Win2K Setup to fail as it can't find the HDD when it's not detected during boot.

Have you tried swapping a new IDE cable?

Also, you said the drive was "warm" during the install.......how much space is there around it? Any air flow in the area, to help cool it down?

If it passed the diags, but is still having problems, give WD support a phone call, they may still be able to RMA the drive, but try the cable first.

Brand new IDE Cables. I didn't have too much to spend with the HDD in the new case last night as it was a bit late and I had an hour's drive home but it didn't seem to be getting nearly as hot in the new case.

Antec Case layout has 2 removable storage bays that provide for the ability of 4 internal 3.5" drives and 2 external 3.5". The top bay in the top slot is the 3.5" floppy. In the bottom bay in the middle slot is the HDD. There is also an Antec Smart Power thermally controlled fan in the same bay aimed directly at the HDD.

I think that this is addressing the heat issue and I began another round of complete disk checking before I left last night. Told it to rewrite the entire drive with zeros to see if that helps any.

If it doesn't then I'm thinking I might just have to call WD and try to go from there. I got the HDD from NewEgg about 2 weeks ago but its an OEM so I think that WD has to handle it.

Sorry if you already tried this but:

clear the bios, disconnect everything but the drive in question, do an auto detect and see if it discovers it. Repeat booting until you're sure it's coming up every time.

Add in other stuff etc... and watch for trouble.

Hadn't had a chance to take it that far. It's an hour drive from my house to theirs and my work day begins at 630am and doesn't end until 530pm. This leaves me little time to go out during the week so I've been limited on what I could get done while I was out there. I have to go out this weekend and have them fix a problem with my car so I should have enough time to do a complete kill / re-kill of the entire system at that time.

Drove out there this morning and started running diagnostics on the drive again. It found no issues so I began the process of running a full rewrite with zeros. Something that would require in excess of 7hrs to complete. While I was waiting I figured I would read thru the entire MB Manual and the HD Docs and the Case Docs just to make sure I hadn't missed something. After about 20 minutes I came across a little line in the MB Manual that states that if you are using a WD HDD and it is not detected during boot then you have to change the jumper to either Single or Cable Select. Did that and all of the problems went away.

NOTE TO SELF : Purchase Hooked On Phonics.

NOTE TO OTHERS : Remember to always read the docs first.

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If only cars worked like computers, reset the jumper and your good to go.