HDD failure

I have a computer which indicates a hard disk failure on a drive I know is OK.
I put the HDD in another computer and it works fine. The 'problem' computer has done this to two different hard drives and I can hear a regular whirring and/or clicking noise when the failure occurs.
The error message shows up in the boot sequence. I suspected a bad power supply and a fellow geek suggested incorrect or corrupted BIOS settings.
Any other suggestions on what I might check?
(btw - both systems I'm working with are older - the 'good' one is a Pentium(r) running WinME, 8G hdd, 128mb ram - the other is an AMD running XP, 20G hdd, 196mb ram - both hard drives are Western Digital models, usually very reliable IMO)
Thanks much.

 

the IDE controller on the motherboard might be bad... find a program like pc check (www.eurosoft.com) and run the utility for checking the motherboard

 

Thanks for the reply, bluetoothFX. The 'problem' computer seems to have settled down. I completely disconnected the power supply from the entire system. When I put it all back together I reseated a connector on the mobo that was not all the way down. I don't know if the IDE controller has it's own power requirements or a wired connection to any peripheral.
I'm keepin' my fingers crossed
btw - when it booted up I hurried and copied some files to floppy and installed Aida32:
CPU - AMD K6-2 500mhz
Mobo - FIC PA-2012, 2013 / VA - 503+
Chipset - VIA VT82C598 Apollo MVP3
This processor is ALOT faster than the 'other' box with a Pentium(r).