well i've been messing with this stupid computer for days now, and I disabled my sata port and everything...
I've given up on using the Quantum Fireball drive, as it was pretty old, and am using the Maxtor D740X-6L 20gb exclusivly.

Alright, so I formatted the drive to HFS+ and I boot up and I get to the install screen, but when i go to disk utilities, my drive is not recognized.

I took some pictures of the boot process (sorry, some parts are missing: a few things happened in between shutter clicks):
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b237/sweebez/osx/DSCN0591.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b237/sweebez/osx/DSCN0598.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b237/sweebez/osx/DSCN0599.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b237/sweebez/osx/DSCN0600.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b237/sweebez/osx/DSCN0601.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b237/sweebez/osx/DSCN0604.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b237/sweebez/osx/DSCN0605.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b237/sweebez/osx/DSCN0606.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b237/sweebez/osx/DSCN0609.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b237/sweebez/osx/DSCN0613.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b237/sweebez/osx/DSCN0615.jpg


Perhaps these will help you figure it out?
Thanks again!