Hi there,
I am having some serious issues with my SATA HDD (Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 – 120GB). It was functioning perfectly, but, after a restart, the computer was not able to boot anymore. It just froze after POST, although it detects my HDD correctly (and extra bonus, SMART reports that it is OK). Moreover, I cannot enter BIOS anymore when the HDD is connected. I replaced it with a 40 GB ATA disk and the computer started flawlessly. So, the problem is that none of my three computers could start up when the disk connected to them. They all manifested the same problem: the boot process froze after detecting it. I tried to disable the controller with the disk disconnected, then connect it on the disabled controller and from the BIOS (which becomes accessible this way), I set the controller to “autodetect”. Well, BIOS identifies it correctly, but it just won’t boot after saving the new settings.
Is there anything I should do to revive my HDD? It doesn’t make any strange noise (except for the HDD coolers) and it has not been exposed to shocks or magnetic fields. Thanks for your patience.