Things to watch for. On a normal boot, you should see something like this somewhere in your boot log: (You may only have one drive, and it will probably be a different make / model / capacity.)
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hdb: FUJITSU MHU2100AT, ATA DISK drive
hda: FUJITSU MHU2100AT, ATA DISK drive
hdb: FUJITSU MHU2100AT, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: FUJITSU MHU2100AT, 95396MB w/8192kB Cache, CHS=12161/255/63
hdb: FUJITSU MHU2100AT, 95396MB w/8192kB Cache, CHS=12161/255/63
If, as we suspect, you have a drive problem (typically a bad cable or dry solder joint), you will see something like:
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
Probing primary interface...
Probing primary interface...
And will see a "kernel panic" message near the end of your boot log.
If this is the case, you need to take the next steps for
troubleshooting a drive problem.