[BC] A puzzling computer problem

[Kevin Trueblood]

Something very odd just happened to me, and I'm starting to wonder something:

Is it possible for a hard drive to corrupt a motherboard and/or power supply?

Here's the scenario:

I bought a Western Digital 80GB drive for a computer a while back.  It took a few times cloning the drive since I couldn't get the computer to boot from it.  After running FDISK /mbr it booted and has worked fine for about a month.  Last weekend the computer it was in completely died.  Wouldn't even power up.  After it sat for a few days for kicks I started it up.  Well, it powered up, but the BIOS froze before even scanning for drives.  This computer was about 5 years old, and was in failing health anyway.  

Yesterday I acquired a faster 1.7Ghz machine that has a little more muscle behind it.  It had a 60GB drive already in it with Windows XP, and I booted it up and worked great with Windows XP.  Because I had a lot of software and files on this 80GB drive that I didn't want to copy and reconfigure on a new computer (the 80GB has Windows 98SE) I wanted to use that drive on the new computer.  I got all the drivers that I needed so Windows 98 would run on that new machine.  

I install the hard drive and it boots up great.  However, the Windows 98 splash screen shows and it locks up.  Weird.  So I double checked the settings and went to boot it up again.  Nothing.  It powers up, but I get no screen and no activity.  Double weird.  I remove the 80GB hard drive and hook the 60GB that came with it up.  Now I get a 

BEEEEEEEEEEP

BEEEEEEEEEEP

BEEEEEEEEEEP

BEEEEEEEEEEP

BEEEEEEEEEEP

That's a power supply error, right?

It only did that once.  The rest of the time it powers up but then hangs without even turning the monitor on.  I see the Network card link light in a steady on, off, on, off, in the same rhythm that the computer would be beeping. 

Considering that this happened to a second, perfectly good computer, only after I installed a hard drive from dead computer makes me wonder if something is wrong with that 80GB drive that could cause it to fail.  But is that even possible?  Could it corrupt the BIOS?  

I'm at a loss here...any insight from the brain trust?

Kevin Trueblood
Director of Operations
AAA Entertainment Radio Group - Bloomington, Il
Program Director
WYST/Star 107.7
309-888-4496
kevint at aaabloomington.com