Emachines computer wont boot up with the hard drive in.

Quick question for hardware guys. My mom has an Emachines computer, and it kept freezing on bootup right when it says enter setup or boot options. If I disconnect the hard drive it boots up no problem and it runs a live cd no problem. Put the hard drive back in, freezes still. Stuck the hard drive in my computer and it hung up for a few minutes on “detecting sata slave ide drive”. Windows eventually booted up but there was no hard drive listed in device manager or windows explorer. I have dealt with pcs with bad hard drive but have never experienced one actually making the machine hangup and not even be able to enter setup. I have come to the conslusion the hard drive needs to be replaced, am I correct?