Is the hard drive bad?

Fixing my friends computer and I ran into the problem of this (picture one)

Looked it up, I found out that either the hard drive is bad or the hard drive cables are loose (or something), or that the boot order is wrong in the BIOS. I set the BIOS to the default boot order. Took the computer apart and unpluged and repluged the cables. The problem still persists. So is the hard drive bad? I was able to format the hard drive from the Windows 8 installation and install Windows 8 on it with what it seemed to be no problem. Note: This problem persisted before any adjustments were made to the computer (i.e. before installing Windows 8).

(picture two is BIOS boot order)

Thanks in advance.

So you installed W8 is the computer now functioning normally ?

Wasn't my idea, my friend wanted it.
I'm sticking with Windows 7. As said before, this problem persisted before I touched the computer and it still persists after I installed Windows 8. So is it the HDD?

Mate how did he install 8? OEM or an upgrade? I have just done two of my machines and have no problems.
By the looks of the BIOS screen that is an older machine right? The boot order is the optical first whereas I would have thought you would have set the drive but I suppose you have your reasons. Plus that drive I am thinking is fairly old too by looking at the specs.

Just how old is this machine? some specs would be nice too.