>i have been able to get cmos and my bios to recognize the slave hard drive
but i'm unable to access the drive either in dos or windows.


  You have to fdisk it and then format it. There are plenty of tutorials on
how to do this...here's one from PCBUILD's Bob Wright:
http://www.nospin.com/pc/faqs0004.html

 Please make note that in option 5 of the FDISK onscreen menu you will
access that one to fdisk your second hard drive. As a beginner it's wise to
be safe and disconnect the data ribbon cable to disk 1 before partitioning
the new drive...that way you won't whack the wrong drive. *;-)

All the best,

Russell Smith
Edtech Consultant, Journalist
A+ Certified Technician
http://www.rustysmith.com

        The NOSPIN Group provides a monthly newsletter with great
       tips, information and ideas: NOSPIN-L, The NOSPIN Magazine
             Visit our web site to signup: http://nospin.com