GLC and Andyms, thanks for the posts.
I think part of where I am getting messed up here is that there are 2 separate problems with 2 separate HD's and it's so darned complicated.
As far as the possible other system problems GLC with the 20 gig drive with the missing wininit.exe, I can put that drive into my system and everything is exactly the same issues so I don't think it's my son's MB or ram, but then again I could be wrong.
What if I format the 20 gig drive and then I have 2 blank drives and can clone my own good hard drive to both of those? Would that work? And do I follow Andyms method to do that for both, using my own hd as the one to point to with the qualifying product thing?
The most important thing at this point is for me to at least get the new 80gig working.
As far as system info:
son's machine - AMD 1 ghz, 128 ram
my machine - AMD 1700, 512 ddr ram, 40gig WD HD
Does that help? Thanks again for all this help
