optical drives killing ubuntu..

so i tried installing ubuntu via usb and it would freeze after choosing install ubuntu and give me a "ata bus error" looked around on google and found out optical drives can cause this so i unplugged my optical drives. i found that if i tried to load it with the optical drives plugged in i had to remount ubuntu on my usb with the "universal usb installer" but after removing the optical drives it installed fine. i did some updates and switched back and forth between windows and ubuntu a few times. then i plugged back in my optical drives now it wont even boot into ubuntu even if they are unplugged... any ideas?
windows 8
ubuntu 13.04 x64
maximus v formula