Taking a lead from Ricardo, worked around the problem with: 1. Added to /etc/yaird/Default.cfg: MODULE ide-generic MODULE ide-disk 2. Created new initrd image: rm /boot/initrd.img-2.6.14-2-686 yaird -v -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.14-2-686 2.6.14-2-686 3. Reboot. hda now properly recognized and boot completes. Paulo