Thanks for the reply sorry it gave you trouble but answers to your questions
Does the hard drive make a ticking sound when you turn it on?
---yes it does when it resets and when it initially turns on
When you plug it in and it does not work, does Windows say something along the lines of "The device was not successfully installed."?
---not always, each time seems to be different, it will sometimes recognize and do its start up application, or incorrectly install drivers, or not show up at all without any sounds
the things that ive checked and tried
--Ive taken it out of the case and actually swapped the connection plate with a HDD that i know is good and still the same things happened.
--I opened up the drive and did a visual check to make sure nothing was loose or scratch, everything came up clean.
--Plugged it into multiple computers and same results came up
my next step will be to try to set it up as a slave drive like you suggested