-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 If I can persuade pine to send this from the right account, this time... (and apologies to the moderator) My PC is currently a very sick penguin; I think that the HDD has died, but I also have my suspicions that it could be the IDE interface. Short of swapping drives (as I don't have a spare), can anyone hazard a guess as to how I work this out, or if it could be something else entirely? Errors include (from memory) {hdb: drive not ready error} Typing 'ls' returns a set of io errors, one naming each file in the directory. Typing 'clear' (or mount, etc) returns 'command not found' Shutting down gives me a console that repeats 'ext3 journal aborting' ad infinitum. Eventually I just powered it off. TIA for any help, Richard - -- http://www.fromtheshadows.com/ Fingerprint: 542C ADA9 47CE 7AA8 2274 PGP Key http://www.fromtheshadows.com/gpg 496A FC43 312C 3D94 2CC8 A friend is someone who knows how to distract a runaway brain - Millie -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE9CGKJ/EMxLD2ULMgRAlcwAJ9MmM6+cdYIsgsKW3CEfkUniKypYACfSqEl 5s1MDt/dYUZLihEdWOQ7OgY= =28A5 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----