When the BIOS can't see the HD, it can be a result of several things, one  of which can be a worn out boot sector on the disk, usually accompanied by cyclical clicking coming from the hard drive.  While I didn't feel this drive was old enough to be showing signs of heading south, it just wouldn't boot.  The freezer trick is to put the HD right in the freezer for a couple-three hours, then take it out, hook it up and fire her up.  The temperature change is enough to change the physical surface of the drive and 'voila' it boots.  Works like a champ, unless your drive had definitely gone south.  Even then it's a last chance thing to try to get the drive to boot one last time to try to save data.  BTW since I zeroed the drive and reloaded the image, the HD hasn't missed a beat except for XP not booting.

Stormy is a black cat we found as a kitten, abandoned in a hotel parking lot on a day with lots of storm activity (green skies, flooded parking lots, etc.).  He was cowering under a semi-tractor and according to the staff he had been hanging around a couple days and they couldn't catch him.  My wife, being the cat magnet she is, had him in 15 minutes, and the rest is history.  He has grown up to be quite a good looking cat, built like a brick s**thouse and a good cuddler.
Thanks everybody for your good suggestions, will try to implement them and try them out, it'll just take a little while.