Defective Mobo?

Hello,

for context, 2 days ago while using my PC i received a prompt for a windows update. since im using my pc i accepted it and went for the option to "update and restart". after restarting my pc wouldnt boot anymore. I tried every step of troubleshooting that i know but to no avail. at the end of my day i tried just one more thing and that is to remove all the HDDs attached to the mobo and left only the SSD (where windows is installed) and the M2 where most games that I play are in and to my surprise it boot successfully. My initial thought was the HDDs are broken (1 have 2 of them btw). I cant believe that is true so I tried putting them back on 1 by 1 and tried turning on my PC - and that would work. But if i try hooking them both tigether with the SSD and the M2 my PC wouldnt boot.

I wanted to blame the windows update so i revert the update and tried putting all of them together but it doesnt work anymore. does this mean that the sata ports on my mobo are defective? i want to think that the windows update was the culprit but also a part of me thinks it's all coincidental.

thoughts?