Guys...thanks very much for the responses...i feel like i'm confusing

both yourself and myself..

I expect your right about the splitter...

The pc is a standard dell optiplex gx280...the sata disk has a foxconn

cable going to the m/b...

In relation to 'Bistro' question 1, the hard drive is faulty so i'm

unsure changing the jumper settings will achieve anything although i

maybe wrong...thats why i'm trying to setup some sort of slave

environment of some description

In relation to question 2...dell has already supplied a replacement

disk as this particular sata disk has failed its diagnostic tests and

is regarded as duff .. i'm unsure whether i'll actually be able to

retrieve any data from the disk..i'm just looking to setup an

environment where i can see whether the data is extractable..i've no

doubt taken a long winded approach in explaining myself...

In relation to question 3...there only appears one power lead...the

cdrom and floppy are on the same bit of cable ... there is a plastic 6

pin female empty connector which is probably in place to provide some

sort of additional cabling...

Thanks for reading this, apologies for my possible perceived

ignorance..i don't tend to look inside to often...thanks for your

responses....TF