hmm just installed my new ibm 45 gig as my second master HD. bios sees it, device manager sees it but it is not listed in my computer. how I format it to NTFS to match my primary HD

Right-click My Computer and choose Manage. Go to the Disk Management section. You should see the drive there, probably with no partitions made. Just make a new partition with the empty space, and format it with the file system of your choice...

I second that.

Disk management in XP is quite powerful, and I have used it alot since I found it. Best way to do it, easiest and its free (PQ $$$).

I tried that but the new partition choice is shaded out

try to delete the partition first. Then reformat it as NTFS

what options does it give you when you right mouse click it?