Judging by the fact that if you leave it a while, and it then works only to come back again, my guess is that you've got an temperature related problem.
It is not necessarily your drive which is overheating, it could be any central system component involved with the IDE interface (for example the chipset), but I would think it possible that you would get other problems too in that case.
And it isn't necessarily overheating. A "dry" solder joint can become loose as temperatures rise and can cause intermittent problems, but they can be impossible to find and can occur at normal running temps.
Of course, if this problem happens from cold (or just after) then this idea is probably wrong.
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