second hard drive

[2big2worry]

  How the devil can I get this drive working.
I have installed a second W/Digi hard drive to my pc.
I flashed the BIOS in order that the M/B would recognise the full storage. I set the new drive with no jumper on end of cable on IDE 1 - and the original as master on end of cable on IDE 2 with CD ROM set as slave. I had windows xp/office loaded on the new drive.
All worked swimingly for 2 weeks and then died. PC will boot only to Sys Config Screen. Although it sees both drives on the initial screen it fails to boot.
The new drive would not boot in an alternative pc either, so I assumed the drive had lost the will to live and got a replacement from W/Digi. -- Same result.
I have now loaded W/xp onto the original drive and when I disconnect the new drive it boots perfectly, but will still not boot with both connected.
I have tried original drive on IDE 1 and new + CDROM on IDE 2 but to no avail.
Is there a genius out there who can unravel this mystery and point a lost sole towards salvation?  
I would be eternally grateful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
frank.

[Computer_Commando]

Click on the following:
How do I physically install a WD EIDE drive into a computer system?

[Frank Pope]

Thank you muchly for your prompt response but as I mentioned in my prologue I have already installed the drive once and it worked for 2 weeks before failing.
However I know the drive is not at fault and I have tried all configs for slave/master with 80pin cables connected correctly.
Any other ideas???

[Computer_Commando]

Try both hard drives on Primary IDE.  Connect boot drive as Master.  Check "Boot Order" in BIOS.  If nothing, Boot Drive is usually Primary Master.

[2big2worry]

Thanks but I already tried that configuration and it refuses to boot. Only when I take the new drive out of the equation does the system boot successfully.

I think it may be a BIOS problem. Could it be that there has been a recovery and the dual BIOS has ripped off the flash that I used? If so what chance flashing again?