Ok, 

here's an update:
I tried another HD and had the same problems. So it's obviously not the HD. No 
matter which HD, it spins up, starts reading for a second and then stops 
reading with teh display showing "Starting up". Ethereal didn't get any DHCP 
requests or othe signals. Up to now I couldn't get any output from the serial 
port (don't know, how? cable is attached, but where do I look for the data?). 
Looks like Chris Schultz has the similar problem, so should I try using the 
1.6 version instead of the 1.6.1, too?

Greetings,
Yves