Hard Drive Crashing Windows XP on Boot

Each time I try to boot my computer, two abnormal things happen that result in Windows XP refusing to boot.

First of all, it takes an extra ten seconds for the BIOS to find all of the hard drives... in fact, it appears to pause while searching for the offending drive.

Secondly, although I get the normal DOS-style loading bar, the screen goes completely black immediately after. As this was happening, I noticed that the small green light on the hard drive which, as far as I can tell, indicates that the drive is being accessed, stayed constantly on. The screen stayed black and the light stayed on until I did a hard reset.

Also, if Windows does manage to boot (it did so once or twice before I disconnected the drive, at which point it booted normally), it first scans the drive which is causing these problems for errors. Then, when I log in, everything freezes, and I have to resort to a hard reset.

Does anybody know what the problem could be? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Never mind...

I just gave it 30 minutes or so to sit after booting, and now everything works!