not booting after install on 2nd harddisk

I'm installing Knoppix 5.0.1 on a 2nd harddisk in my system having installed Windows 2000 on the first harddisk.
Installation went OK (Debian, ext3, GRUB in mbr after sing "Knoppix lang=us screen=1024x768 dma installer" bootoptions) and i can see both partitions created by installationprog (1 GB and over 70 Gb) after booting Windows2000 and looking at Disk management (allthough I don't see them using Windows Explorer).

But when I try to boot (no matter what entry I choose from the menu) it starts well and shows hda , hdb and hdc (harddisk, harddisk, dvdwriter) and after that it tells (TWO times):

hdb dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x61
hdb DMA timeout error
hdb ma_timeout_error: status = 0x58 (Driveready, Seekcomplete Datarequest)
ide failed opcode was : unknown

Then it continues and tells

Found hardware profile in /etc/modules-2.6.17
Starting the hotplug events dispatcher : udevs
Synthesising the hotplugsevents.... done
Waiting /dev to be fully populated .... hda dma_timer-expiry : status == 0x21
(done)
hda : DMA timeout error
hda : DMA timeout error status = 0x58 (Driveready, Seekcomplete Datarequest)
ide: failed opcode was unknown
hdb : lost interrupt

that last line (hdb: lost interrupt) will now be repeated over and over again and system will not proceed

a) What is the problem
b) how can I solve it

This sounds like a corrupted partition to me......maybe the drive is failing or something went goofy during creation of the partition *shrug*


"hdb: lost interput" is never a good sign :)


Take care,
-Justin
One Mynds Eye