On Fri, 11 May 2018 06:53:14 -0000 (UTC), "Yes"
wrote:

- a CD/DVD player and
three HDDs. I disconnected all of them. The pc booted up. After
that, I re-connected each one individually. When all was said and
done, one HD would always result in immediate shutdown. With another
HD, the pc would boot up, but BIOS would not recognize that the HD was
there.

A bad HDD never results in a MB shutting down. A black or blank
screen, a delayed BIOS fault post, but not a shut down. A bad HDD
should also never be connected until, if possible, it's fixed,
recognizable or replaced. There used to be factory LLF routines (Low
Level Format), but you can download what the drive/model has from the
manufacturer in the way of diagnostics and try to reinitialize it. A
DOS FDISK command is another: used with the "hidden" switch: FDISK
/MBR [reinitiates, clears and overwrites the Master Boot Record]. If
the drive is trashed, however, trash is that last contingency everyone
works with in varied plans for a backup scheme. To include throwing
more money for yet more equipment into that great glory hole of our
proclivity, amen.