hi again jeremy,im sorry i wasnt tryin to undermine what u said its just one of my friends told me tht it may have had something to do with the format of the hdd. so u are sure there is definately nothin i can do in order to solve this other than buy a new pc? talldude my operatin system is xp. and i think i have the jumpers in the right position,the 20 gig is defo in master,and the 80gig which i took out of my pals pc i believe to be set at sec slave,for some reason wen i put it at slave it would not boot up,but wen i put it to sec slave it booted up and read the hdd?