Issues relating to HW mounting ? Suggestions

[dvdman3]

2 harddrives.....After starting up and it shows in the ODS Screen but does not show on desktop and when it does it says partition error #100 [Bad partition Error] in Partiton magic. I have check all jumper cables and length and even tried to use it in the firewire case but still no go. Strangely I got it to start a few times before. Hard drives these days are very very poor quality.. I got it about less than a year ago and the other 40+ [all models - 120 gb to 250gb] drives we have here at the workgroup is ok but for for the Maxtor DX 540 5200 RPM is not mounting and the IBM the New GXP series. Is there a way for me to mount it.. When using Win 98 to try to mount it I cannot even past boot screen.. it hangs at the Verifying DMI Pool [one before win2k starts]. Help please ? Thanks so much.