BIOS not detecting either 2 hard drives

I apologize if there is a thread already here but I have not found one with my particular problem. While watching TV, my desktop reboots while it was in the middle of doing nothing but simply running as usual. The DOS screen was stuck and it stated about a S.M.A.R.T. error. I went into the BIOS and disabled SMART because on previous computers this has worked. It worked for about 24 hours. Then it rebooted again and could find my primary drive. I eventually got it to post and it began the automatic Windows XP ckeck disk program and had many many many read errors. I tried to check the drive with a copy of Western Digital's disk tools and the program was stuck but found my drive with the serial number and model number. I tried the bootable WD tools disk several times and it would get stuck for 12-14 hours. I tried to fix the install of Win XP but it never found my 2 hard drives. The BIOS could not auto detect either hard drives after several attempts.

I consider myself an experienced user because I have built about 6 computers in the past by myself and this particular configuration has been in place for over a year so I know it is not a hardware conflict and no new programs have been installed. BIOS recognizes both of my DVD/CD drives so i don't believe it is the mother board and there have been no power surges nor has the power gone off when the system rebooted.

The only things that I have not tried are the following:
1. Change the EIDE ribbon cable for the hard drives
2. Take the 2 drives out and try them in another computer

Is it possible for 2 different hard drives to go out at the same time that were purchased and installed and different times of life? If so I have to be the most unlucky person in the history for hardware huh?

If anyone can tell me of anything else to try besides these 2 please let me know or if there is a thread that I missed in my search give me the link but most the ones I read were to do with new hardware conflicts. Thanks.

 

It is possible that one of the drives has failed and the other isn't functioning due to jumper settings etc.

Try connecting both drives individually as masters and see if it helps narrow down the problem.

 

The IDE cable and primary hard drive are both fine but when I put the secondary drive into another computer the following happened:

BIOS recognized it right away
Win XP started the chkdsk and it is steadily showing "File record segment 119389 is unreadable" and this continues sequentially for a while.

I'm guessing that the drive is toast and it is only a year old. I guess Western Digital doesn't make them like they used to.

Two more questions:
With these read error will the information be able to be copied to a new hard drive or could the data be saved? If so, where should I start if the drive cannot be copied?

Which do you prefer EIDE or SATA drives? I have both connections on my mother board?

Thanks for everyones help looks like I will be getting another hard drive.

 

Thank you for all of your great responses to my dilemma and for the suggestions. They are all good responses that allowed me to think about what needs to be done. I am sure WD will send me a refurbished EIDE drive so I guess I will make do with what the send me. Thanks and God Bless!!