Hi Sue,  thanks for your input and i wish i had known it earlier. but for the
life of me i could not guess (as you seem to have correctly) that microsoft
wrote codes in their os to detect ide cables rather than the drives! in fact i did get two cables (one for floppy and the other for ide) with my new mobo and both of them are still with me unpacked in their plastic covers! i am still struggling with the problem and let me see --God bless and have a nice day
   venkat viswanathan

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