Something else just occurred to me. You say you are using 2.4.19-pre3. Would that be the same 2.4.19-pre3 that includes the new ide code from 2.5 but does not include the fix for the filesystem corruption it caused in 2.5 ? You may want to go here now: http://lwn.net/2002/0314/kernel.php3 I seem to recall you saying something about fuming but not yet crying.... -- Simon Hepburn.