Problem with hard drive, press enter to continue - plz help!!

Intel DG965WH
intel dual core 2.1 ghtz
ddr 5 video card
2 hd's 40gb and 500gb

win7 ultimate


After the bios screen I get the following message:

Problem with hard drive, press enter to continue

I press enter and windows boots and both hard drives work flawlessly. If I disconnect the 5oogb the error no longer appears and if I try disconnecting the 40gb hd and boot the 500gb by itself the error re-appears, so I think we can safely say the problem lies with the 500gb hd...

But the hd works fine. I have tested it with the seagate tool and after a long scan the drive passes. This also happens with the western digital diagnosis tool, again using the long scan. However, the SMART status states that the hd has failed??

This is my stepsons PC and he says he has had this message since he installed the 500gb hd and he chose to ignore it. This message he has been getting for about 15 months!

At first I thought it might have been a psu problem as he only had a 250w psu and a 20 pin connector going to the mobo. But I have replaced the psu with a 400 watt and I still get the message:

Problem with hard drive, press enter to continue

Now I'm stuck - the HD passes these tests should he just run the hd till it dies? Is there anything wrong with it (how can I be sure?)

Your help is much needed here - i've ran out of ideas

thanks in advance!

 

thanks for tips

i've backed the data up and reformatted the hd and still same error message. Looks like i've ran out of options - new hard drive req'd!

cheers anyway