Ok I've figured out finally what has been making my box act crazy. The hard drive is disappearing from mount manager, Ive replaced it with a brand new western digital scorpio drive, checked connectors are firmly in place but no joy.

Ive been in touch with technomate who will supply me with a new power and data cable but looking at the cable Im thinking is it definitely the cable, all it is, is copper wires connecting the hard drive to the mainboard.

So its making me think its more of a mainboard issue, I'm on the latest version of VIX and running the usual setup.

Anybody offer any input...?