Cian Cullinan wrote: > Well given the simultaneous errors from both disks, and the all-clear > from smartctl, it *really* sounds like a problem external to the > disks, I.E.: cables, controller etc. I had a workstation machine a number of years ago that had a similar problem. I was able to duplicate the problem and make it go away at will by enabling/disabling the fan that was on the southbridge chip that controlled diskIO for that particular motherboard. Removing the fan/heatsink entirely triggered a wave of disk errors. "Freezing" the chip with a "can of compressed air" would make the errors stop (until the chip heated up again). I was rather poor at the time so I temporarily solved it by shoehorning a bigger heatsink onto the southbridge until I could afford a new motherboard. Cheers,