Then I checked the cables/jumpers as per reccommendations. They seem fine as far as I can tell. I made sure they seemed seated well.

A bad crimp (ribbon cable to connector connection) isn't really visible, so it could still be the cable...

ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/hdaX is mounted

Not a problem, the empeg simply doesn't have (by design) the /etc/mtab file which fsck tries to check to see if the filesystem to test is mounted or not.

fsck.ext2: Is a directory while trying to open /drive1

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

Does your empeg have 2 drives? If not, /drive1 is just a directory, not a place where to find a mounted filesystem.

Hmmm, looking at the boot log you do seem to have 2 drives. The boot log looks corrupted though (attached my boot log as comparison - using hijack and picker, so it's slightly more things in there)

If I were you I'd probably see if I could make each disk work properly alone (one drive player configuration). Test both connectors on teh IDE cable too - the bad crimp seems to be only on the middle connector.

/Michael