Is there any Hope?

[Holley]

Any joy putting it in as a slave, booting off another disk?

Sometimes they do just go for no reason (had two PCs under 3 years old do that this week!)

[Holley]

Both should show exactly the same at normal colour depth & resolution, but the Voodoo should refresh faster making for better video playback.

I have had quite a few older (4.5Gb) Samsung harddisks that just keep working nicely.  I don't have any experience with newer ones but in general the newer/faster/larger harddisks are less reliable unless you pay out for a high quality mechanism.  Maxtor 20Gb and up seem to be the best of the new budget stuff.

[Holley]

Wierd getting shadows, they're right that it's often caused by a faulty cable/connector (provided it's the same monitor used as the PIV this means checking the Voodoo's socket for weak connections).

Might be worth checking that the Voodoo isn't near any sources of interference too (ie. PSU or something), it won't detract from the performance to move it to another slot.