OK, HP Pavilion 735n, still under warranty, two 80 GB HDs, original HD has Win XP (HP recovery partition on hda1, remainder on hda2 in NTFS), second 80 GB HD has partitions for Mandrake installation (hdb1, 5,6,7), with about 65 gig (hdb in an NTFS partition. Followed the advice in installing Mandrake to install GRUB to the secondary HD. I did so, and it worked well, and I'm cruising along fat, dumb and happy, when all of a sudden, my BIOS went stupid on me, and wouldn't recognize my HDs (no, I'm not blaming Knoppix or Mandrake - I wasn't using Knoppix, and both WinXP and Mandrake were working fine - my wife, OTOH, is laying the blame squarely at my feet for screwing around with Linux in the first place, so Tux's honor, rightly or wrongly, is on the line). Anyway, no settings work, both HDs pass a diagnostic utility test (a bootable disk left over from second HD installation), Knoppix runs just as good as ever, with both HDs accessible, etc (BIOS still recognizes the CD drives).

Called HP tech support - tech had me unplug and re-plug IDE cables and power cables in all possible permutations, including without second HD - no effect. So, he wants me to RMA the box back to him (after removing the second HD), and I'm betting they're going to swap out units with me, and I'm going to lose all my data and get stuck reinstalling everything, plus doing without the box for a couple of weeks.

I went to HP website (on another computer) to get support and drivers for my machine, and they have a BIOS update download available. So, I figure I'll copy it to a bootable floppy, flash the BIOS, and be on my way. Wrong - the BIOS has to be installed from Windows, and can't be installed from DOS, but I can't get into Windows. So I e-mailed HP tech support, gave them a case number, and proposed that they e-mail me a bootable BIOS flash. HP says no, they can't e-mail BIOS flashes, and since the problem is in my HD (Huh???), I need to RMA it anyway. I just e-mailed back, asking if the problem is with the HD, and I'm going to lose data anyway, why not re-image?

BTW, I saw the posts about Knoppix ruining Dell BIOSes, and the fix involving pushing the power button while the cord's unplugged. I did that, but I didn't hold the power button very long. I'll try it again.

Here's what I need from you folks, if you will be kind enough to help me:

1. I think my BIOS flashing idea makes sense, but apparently HP thinks I'm wrong. If you agree with HP, please tell me, and I'll chalk it up to bad hardware, take my lumps, and quit obsessing about it.

2. If you think that there's some merit in my idea, do any of you know a website where I can get a flash ROM image of the BIOS for my machine?

3. If I have to RMA the machine, could someone please step me through the procedure for using Knoppix off the CD to copy data and program files from hda to hdb, and also how to burn CD-Rs or DVD+Rs of the hda data, so that I won't lose it? I'm afraid I have not learned enough about running Knoppix off the CD to copy data off of drives and delete data off of drives, and insofar as I'm having to pose these questions off of other people's borrowed PCs, and mine is stll laying dormant while my wife taps her foot and fumes, I don't have a lot of time to get up to speed the hard way.

4. If you have other ideas or suggestions, please let me know.

Thank you, Klaus, you may be my only hope.