New SATA drive causing problems.

Hi all!

I just put a new Samusung Spinpoint 250g SATA 3.0 in my machine today to get a little more storage space.

It seemed to detect and install correctly. So I partitioned and formatted it.

After it finished, I had to shut down and plug in a case fan I unplugged to install the drive. Upon restart, the new drive started getting hammered. It is not set as a boot device in BIOS. It sat there like that for 2-3 mins. Then I heard my Raptors kick in and Vista booted normally.

Once in Windows, I went into Explorer to copy some files over, and the Samsung drive is gone. Not in Explorer, Device Manager, or Computer Management. The drive is still detected properly in BIOS and spins up when I start the machine.

I don't exactly know why I tried this, but you never know... I tried forcing the Samsung to 150 to match the Raptors thinking the controller may be freaking out. Didn't help.

Anyone know the cause, or more specifically, does it sound like it may just be a bad drive?

OK, I changed cables and tried a different motherboard connector and the boot time went back to normal. Also, I have access to the drive in Windows and it seems to be functioning properly.

However, now, at shutdown, it takes about 3-5 mins. The hard drive LED is solid the entire time and I know it's the Samsung. I could hear the Raptors getting hammered if they were, but this is near silent. It is a pretty quiet drive.

After the 3-5 mins of constant hammering, the Raptors chirp and finally the PC powers down.

Strange behavior really. Any advice would be appreciated.