I recently received the blue screen of death with the machine_check_exception message while attempting to copy my 120gb hd to a new 500gb hd. I have tried both Norton Ghost and Acronis backup and both times I have gotten this message. Both drives are SATA and I guess master/slave isnt necessary for SATA, correct? Even though my older 120gb is SATA, there are still jumper switches and both and IDE/SATA power supply slot. Any help on solving this problem and how I can completely copy my HD would be appreciated. Thanks..

"machine_check_exception message" is not specific enough. There is usually a Stop: line that goes along with that. The best place to search for info is the Microsoft site, using machine_check_exception and looking for the Stop: number. E.g. STOP: 0x0000009C (0x00000004, 0x00000000, 0xb2000000, 0x00020151) ... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284 "Both drives are SATA and I guess master/slave isnt necessary for SATA, correct?" It's still necessary to use master/slave jumpering, or cable select jumpering, and you must connect to the proper SATA header on the mboard - see the mboard manual. Your mboard chipset must see both drives and must recognize drives larger than 128gb in the bios (137gb manufacturer's size) - in other words the mboard must have 48 bit LBA support. If the new drive is SATA-II and the mboard SATA controller is SATA (SATA-I), some mboard chipsets cannot recognize a SATA-II drive even as a SATA drive unless there is a jumper installed on pins on the drive that can force the drive into SATA mode - some SATA-II drives have that capability (e.g. some Samsung), some do not (e.g. some Maxtor). "Even though my older 120gb is SATA, there are still jumper switches and both and IDE/SATA power supply slot." It doesn't matter whether you use the 4 pin molex power connection or the SATA power connection on the 120gb drive - use one or the other.