Ant wrote:

....
I would make sure to run a backup ASAP, like right now.

Already did onto hda since that's the only HDD I have to back up to).
Now, how come before these errors came up my motherboard couldn't see
BOTH HDDs? Is that related or just a coincident?

Well, you have a Quantum and a Seagate, both on the same cable.
Some models of these competing manufacturers (oh that was a while ago) could
not play nice with each other. That problem needed not to show up at the
first time though ....
And one stalling/blocking harddrive (electronics) can block the whole bus.
--
vista policy violation: Microsoft optical mouse found penguin patterns
on mousepad. Partition scan in progress to remove offending
incompatible products. Reactivate MS software.
Linux 2.6.24. [LinuxCounter#295241,ICQ#4918962]