Hard drive only detected at bootup and in BIOS

Hello,
I have tried this sata hard drive in two different pcs (as 1st and also 2nd drive in both)and it is only detected at bootup and in BIOS. Windows takes quite a while to boot with this hard drive in the pc. When installed as 1st drive for setup linux and xp setup don't see it. Have tried seagate seatools, UBCD4Win and Testdisk but none of them see it. It does not show in Disk Management at all. The only time it is visible is when pc boots up and in BIOS. Have tried all sata configurations in BIOS, no luck. Have done physical shaking test, Heads seem to be free, single ckick sound when moved in one direction. Drive heats up normally so i think it is spinning up, (have bad hearing so cant detect spinning noise in pc with fan going too- i presume heating up means it is spinning up). At this stage i am thinking of opening it up but don't know yet what to look for. All other drives on the 2 pcs are IDE. Have read all the posts in the thread: "2nd SATA drive detected in BIOS but NOT in Windows Disk Management". Any help appreciated. I have spent hours and hours on this drive.