Probably a silly question but have you checked the jumpers on the HD ?
DOD wipe means Department Of Defense data wiping standard, which exposes your hard drive to alternating magnetic fields that overwrite your original data with random patterns, for those that are paranoid about their data 
I suppose you also plugged in the power connector next to the IDE cable?
I was going to ask that too but thought an electrician should know everything about power 
Sounds like a dead drive alright Steve.
I’ve had similar experiences before too, where a drive going bad would screw up the BIOS/Booting and all manner of weird things.
Too bad for you, hope you can get a refund.
Personally I would never buy a used HD but that’s me 