Question : Problem: unable to detect sata drive

hi - i have a second xp computer which i attach drives for testing - it has two pci cards which I can attach either ide or sata drives - they have been working fine until this 1 notebook sata drive - it just doesn't detect it. It's a 160gb hitachi notebook sata - it says sata - so I don't think it's sata II - it would say it?
Originally I thought there was a problem with the drive so I put it back in the notebook and it works fine.
Any ideas?

Answer : Problem: unable to detect sata drive

All drives are SATA2 now so generally they don't say on the drive any more. Have you tried the mundane things like swapping SATA cables, using a different SATA port etc? When you say it doesn't detect it, is that in BIOS or in Windows? Make sure it hasn't just lost the drive letter. Have a look in Disk Management in Windows:

Right click My Computer > Manage > Disk Management in the left hand pane > Right click desired drive to change/assign drive letter.