Just an interesting follow-up:
I replaced my Western Digital 80GB hard drive for 2 Seagate 80GB hard drives, and no longer is LBA or no LBA an issue... Everything works properly, no matter how I try to break it...
I have no idea why this is fixed now... I am using the same hardware and the same OS... I can only assume that something on that Western Digital hard drive was not programmed properly...
Mike (Xyzzy)