Is anyone esle on 10.6.2? Do you hardrives retain their custom icons in the dock?
I have 10.6.2 and, although I can't offer any advice to correct your problem, I can advise that mine does not work the way yours does.
I have two external firewire hard drives so I tried what you are doing - drag a hard drive icon to the dock. Neither will not stay there. They just pop back onto the desktop.
So far as the F1 key is concerned....it just operates as a brightness dimmer.
ryck
