desktop has 2 identical sata seagate drives
drive 1 has my windows xp install
drive 2 is just storage

when i boot the pc from a power off state it detects drive 1 then hangs for a couple seconds before going to windows load without recognizing drive 2
i can let the pc load windows from the one recognized drive but it takes about 5 minutes and once windows launches there is no sign of drive 2 anywhere

also if i jump into bios from the boot it only shows the 1 drive

now in order to get drive 2 recognized there is one thing that seems to work but it doesn't work the same every time
plugging in USB devices (printer, portable hdd, thumb drive)
it appears to be random which devices make it work and which port they are plugged into
maybe just coincidence?

now here is the catch
once i get drive 2 recognized everything boots up in seconds and appears to be a normal stable system
i can restart the pc no problem - both drives will be recognized and windows loads perfect
and if i jsut into bios on the restart it shows both drives like it should
but if i shut the pc down and then turn it back on we are back to the original problem of not recognizing drive 2

bizzare no?
its a real pain in the ass and for that reason i rarely shut down
but when i do its a 10-15 minute trial and error process to get everything recognized

any thoughts at all?

hehe powder down... if you powder your computer your bound to have issues such as this

PS. just curious what powder do you use? i use arm & hammer

whoops