Sean,
This happened to me once, although it was with Western Digital drives.  In
the end, after I ruined 2 drives, it turned out to be my either my
motherboard or power supply.  One day, as my son described it to me, "fire
shot out of the power supply and it started smoking".  He quickly turned it
off and needless to say, that was the last time we used that motherboard and
power supply.  The hdd (my 3rd) I was using at the time, worked fine once I
replace the MB and PS.  Although I thought the problem was the power supply,
a technician at a local computer supply wholesale company told me that the
problem actually could have been something (I can't remember the name of
this) that is on the motherboard that helps regulate the power.  At any rate,
bottom line, check out both your motherboard and power supply.

Good luck,
Wendy Brown

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