When you changed the bios and controller, you probably changed the "translation" the drive uses. It used to claim a different number of heads and sectors so that it would not go over the cylinder limit. The "Oops" indicates a crash of the kernel. It would help to know the kernel versions you were using on Debian and Slackware. I will be releasing a new boot disk within a few days - hopefully it will work better for you. Thanks Bruce Perens