Storage disk stopping Win7's startup. Only Win7 O_o

Hello,

I have a storage disk that is recognized by Linux live CDs (like Mint), that works once encased in an external USB rack, but that makes the startup of Win7 either freeze or hang forever at the "animated windows logo" step.
I'm coming seeking for help :)

First, how the problems appeared.

- I went through a recent ordeal, a PSU stopping working with a strong smell of burnt material. Replaced by a widely locally trusted PC repairman at a local PC parts shop with a brand PSU.
- The next day, I start up my computer for the first time, Windows takes unnaturally long to startup (stuck at the animated windows logo stage), I open my PC case just in case, and... I swear I am not kidding, with a familiar smell of burnt plastic, a point on my video card (4 years cheap old nvidia GF6) suddenly started twinkling, sparkling, minuscule flames appeared - and then I unplugged the power button and cursed heavens.
- Back to the PC shop, the owner was flabbergasted and embarrassed (he had air-cleaned my PC tower before and after installing the new PSU, and let my PC run during 30 minutes in his shop in my presence after the PSU installation, with no problems), but had no explanation to offer . I had to buy a new video card.
And this is here that we noticed a problem, the present problem.

Second, the actual problem description.

I have 4 hard disks (I'm a backup freak), 1 SSD SATA and three 3.5' SATAs.
The latest is a Western Digital Green 2 TB, 6 months old.
And Windows7 won't leave the "animated windows logo" state if that disk is plugged in.
Win7 will load perfectly and work flawlessly if that disk isn't plugged.
Even though during the bios startup phase, the disk is perfectly found and recognized.
And yet, that disk is readable and writable when I run a Linux Live CD like Linux Mint, or insert that hard disk into an USB external hard disk rack.

The only change I performed on my OS after the burnt parts affair was to uninstall the previous nvidia display drivers, and reinstall a freshly downloaded copy.

In the PC shop, we tried experiments with my hard disk inside my PC tower :
- Slightly tilting the hard disk by 20-30 degrees once allowed the disk to be usable with windows, but it only worked once (in 7-8 attempts). So : maybe the reading head is partly damaged.
- brand new SATA cable between the faulty disk and my motherboard.
- switching SATA cables and power cables between the faulty disk and the other working disks
- swapping where the 4 SATA cables were plugged on the motherboard
- unplugging various combos of disks, to see if there was a mutual incompatibility
-----> Eventually, nothing changed the problem, everything worked in all combos, save for when that hard disk was plugged

In Linux Mint LiveCD, I copied that disk's contents to another disk for safety (it worked at normal speed) and then, using GpartEd, I formatted one of the hard disk's 3 NTFS partitions, resizing another one, and tried rebooting windows... same problem.

I tested, windows won't even start up in failsafe mode (default options) or failsafe mode (command prompt), there's the same freeze halfway. I vaguely remember the last sys driver loaded being something like *pnp.sys, but maybe the actual driver causing the hangup wasn't printed to screen when the freeze occured.

...
And this is my present case.
I'm really lost for words and I don't know where to search further.

That is a backup disk so I may format whatever is required. But I don't know if that would help.
I don't even know if Western Digital will accept me sending back the HDD for an exchange since I witness myself that it still works with Linux and externally O_o

...
Please, would you have a suggestion, or an idea, for this problem ? Thank you VERY MUCH if you can help :)

All right, I unplugged all HDDs save the problem one and made all the possible tests, with puzzling results.

- The bootable DOS version didn't recognize my WD20EARS, Western Digital apparently forgot to update it for a frigging long time :
« Western Digital drives were found, however noone of them are supported in this version of this program. Please contact WD Support for help in getting an earlier version »

- So I took the non-bootable DOS version of the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics tool, since that other version was said to be up to date. I copied it to an USB key, booted with UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) in Freedos, went to c:\ (the USB key) and manually ran DLGDiag~.exe (or something like that, DLGDiagv519.exe in MS DOS). Result ?
« Western Digital drives were found, however noone of them are supported in this version of this program. Please contact WD Support for help in getting an earlier version »
Hey, seriously, Western Digital !!

- I tried again a pair of times, and the one that made me give up was this message, instead of the previous error messages, always after launching the DLGDiagv519.exe program in FreeDos.
« Please contact technical support and report the following error.
DLGDIAG 5.19 - Data Lifeguards Diagnostics
BUSY TIME OUT
ERROR / STATUS CODE 0134 »
(I did my googling, there was no cable change since the previous attempt, however I managed to eventually reproduce the situation with another SATA cable, this cable working flawlessly with another disk)

- "Dying on me, are you ?" I rebooted again and again, and indeed, there were two times during which the bios hardware recognition process froze when the culprit disk was mentioned.

- Just in case, I once again plugged all the other disks, giving another SATA power and data cable to the disk (exchagned with another working disk), and ran Win7. Same problem as initially, no more progress while there's the animated windows logo.

- And the finishing touch, I booted with Linux Mint Live CD. First attempt, kernel panic. Second attempt, successful boot with all 3 partitions of the problem disk showing and working.

...

This is infuriating.

In your opinion, please, please :)

- Are there still other possible steps to take, possible ways to solve the problem ?

- May I safely send the disk to the WD customer support for an exchange, or might they object that the disk is still working for them (as it is for me with Linux O_o )

As before, I'm open to all remarks and suggestions, thank you very much :)