"Ok there's a lot of difference between 5 minutes and 27 hours my friend."
i am not your friend and i think that most users don't want to be your friends now(i hope i'm wrong)
"Obviously a ribbon would suggest ide drives and both units being on the same one eliminates anything but an ide drive. "
no, it is not obvious because some people calls a sata cable a ribbon so it is not obvious, this is something basic, give all the information you can so other people can try to help you
"I don't need to check the cables or jumpers because I built this computer three months ago and as I clearly stated,"
i have build countless computers and ide cables can fail without any notice, the fail can be unpredictable and create impossible to diagnose problems
"So do you actually have any suggestions as far as setting go, or do you just want to continue assuming that I'm an idiot?"
i don't need to assume anything now, i'm sure
i was extremely polite when i made all those questions
"p.s. It's a Sony drive"
model of drive(not just the name), mainboard model, kernel version in use
btw, sony drives have proven to me that they are not the best purchase one can do, if you can, change them for another popular model recommended here
talking about information in general, here you can find some very important information
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,2401.0.html