Thanks for the reply Ted. For the most part I think we are on the same page.
Correct. I'm in complete agreement with you there.
But as soon as I access any menu option that will ultimately access the hard drive (like master >> special), the OS goes "looking" for for the hard drive even before it uses it, and this is when it crashes. Non-HD menu functions appear to work as normal.
I also would agree with you that the OS on the HD is corrupt or otherwise not "playing nice" but I am still at a loss for how I can get around it. I don't have a PC w/ scsi or other means to do a low level format to the drives so I am scratching my head as to how I'd format them in my Emax, if my Emax crashes every time I try to access any hard drive-specific menu option.
Thanks again,
Jim