Place an Applescript for Hard Drives in the left side of the dock.

In MacOS X, you can drag a hard disk icon to the dock and it appears in the section containing the trash. Wouldn't you like it towards the top as it has been IN EVERY OTHER VERSION of the MacOS?

So ask yourself, what kind of items can reside on the other side of the Dock? If you said, "Applications" give yourself a shiny dime.

Being a clever lad (with a rather high I.Q.), I deduced an AppleScript may do the trick!

Open the MacOS X Script Editor (Applications/Utilities) and take a look at the two scripts listed below.

The version on the left opens the Startup Disk, the one on the right opens the volume named "Blackbird". After entering the text into the Script Editor save the file as an application and check the "Never Show Startup Screen" option. Once the applet is saved, you can paste your favorite hard disk icon into the applet and drag it to the dock.

One drawback to this option is the fact that these are applications, so they have to launch. This takes about two dock bounces. If you drag a hard disk to the dock by the Trash, there is no delay to open it. It's a trade off between speed and location.

If you don't mind paying for a shareware solution, look into DockDisks, a Preference Pane that accomplishes the same thing, placing hard disks near the Finder icon in the dock.