new mobo won't recognize old hdd

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

Mythix

Honorable
Jun 23, 2013
2
0
10,510
I bought a new motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128542 and a new WD HDD and a fresh copy of windows 7 home premium. Installled everything and got it up and running. Now, I'd like to insert my old hard drive so I can access and transfer all of my old documents and such. When I install the old hard drive (both hdd are sata) I get a black screen. BIOS doesn't even boot. I unplug the old hdd and it boots up fine. I am wondering if it's a compatability issue as the new mobo is a UEFI and intel chipset and the old mobo was regular bios with AMD chipset. I even had an old sata -> USB connector that I tried using to see if it will recognize the hdd and no luck.

I read about enabling IDE vs ACHI in the BIOS, but I'm not sure that will work since the old hdd is sata.

The new hdd is in sata port 0 and I've tried the old hdd in several different ports ( 1 and 5 for example)

Thanks for your help!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
JobCreator

JobCreator

Honorable
Apr 18, 2013
1,077
0
11,660
The motherboard doesn't have the HDD drivers on it. It's not going to read a HDD that already has Windows on it. There are recovery options that someone else will have to explain as that's as far as my knowledge on the subject goes.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Tom Tancredi

Tom Tancredi

Judicious
May 9, 2013
4,999
0
32,960
Okay take a step back. Your mixing different technical details together, that may not matter. Let me break this down and correct me if there is a problem.

So you replaced the MoBo, HDD, and did fresh Windows Install and now you want to transfer things back from the removed HDD. Okay I would say you missed a BIG step here in preperation, you should have used Windows Easy Transfer in your old rig to make a backup of all your settings, favorites, documents, etc. to a external HDD. When you were done with all the steps you did, then use the Windows Easy Transfer in the new Windows build and upload it from the external drive, reboot, DONE.

I would tell you the simpliest method at the moment (if your mobo included new mem, new cpu already) would be to simply open the case, wire the mobo and HDD back into the computer (not replace the components, I mean unplug new MOBO connection one and put it back into old MOBO connection one, etc.). I would sit the old mobo & HDD on a wood / high resin plastic surface to avoid metal to metal contact and this would be the fast dirty way to do it with the least muss and fuss. Now there is also a SECOND reason I suggest this, if you put the old HDD back on the old Mobo, and it still doesn't work, then it confirms my suspicion the old drive failed somewhere in the process.

Normally you should be able to (as you inferred) take your old SATA HDD, use a SATA->USB connector and read the drive, hand draggins your Users/Profile directory from old computer to new one (really NOT recommended with WIN7!!). But you said it can't be read, have you tried that old HDD and USB connector on any other computer (I suggest a friend's, neighbor, family)??? If it still didn't work then either the old drive failed or the connector isn't for that SATA. Make sure the connector supports that large HDD (some are limited to 300GB while your connecting a 500GB drive) or that type of SATA (connecting a SATA III HDD to a SATA II connector won't work).

That would be my suggestions.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

Mythix

Honorable
Jun 23, 2013
2
0
10,510
Thank you both for your suggestions.
@JobCreator: That's kinda what I figured (the new mobo not reading the old hdd because it has windows on it) - both hdd now have windows boot directories on it and I'm thinking the mobo is confused which to boot - so it just crumps.

The reason I bought a new HDD was because the new mobo wanted to reformat the old HDD into a new format - I think MBR (or maybe that's the old format) anyways, I didn't want to format the hdd because I had stuff I wanted to keep. So I thought I could purchase a new hdd, format it, install windows, then add in my old hdd as a secondary storage drive. But when I add in the second hdd, the mobo won't boot.

@Tom - I didn't have an external hdd to save all my documents, etc to. I started up the windows easy transfer and it needed like 30 dvds lol. Yes, I think that the sata-> usb connector I have is very old, and I think you are right that the drive is too large for it to read probably. Tried dl new drivers for it on manufacturer's website, but it's so old, it's no longer supported. So, I bought an external dock which should arrive in the next few days so I can plug it in and hopefully retrieve my data. Also, I did add in the old hdd as a secondary drive to the new mobo but the mobo won't boot when I install it as a secondary drive. The drive hasn't failed (or at least that would be a freaking weird coincidence hehe since it was working fine before) I could take the mobo out and reinstall the old mobo with the old hdd to verify that the old hdd hasn't failed, but I am very cautious when installing new components and I would be very surprised if it failed between taking it out of the old mobo and putting it into the new one. I guess it could happen, but it would be the least likely reason that the new mobo is failing to boot when I install it as a secondary drive. If it was a dead hdd, then the mobo would boot up as normal with the new hdd and just not recognize the old hdd. However, the mobo is failing to boot when I add the old hdd to the board. I don't even get the BSOD. Just black screen. no blue flashes at all. no post, nothing. the fans for cpu and sysfan are running, but no display. I even took out my gpu and tried using the onboard gpu to see if I could get a display of something, but nothing appeared when both hdd are mounted. =(

Good news is I do have all my stuff backed up on the cloud, but I was hoping to use the hdd as a secondary drive and I'd like to get this problem sorted. It would certainly be easier than dl all my stuff from the cloud and copying it to the new drive.

Still no solution as to why the mobo won't boot when I add in the old hdd (Unless it's because the old hdd has windows installed on it and the poor mobo is confused.)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Tom Tancredi

Tom Tancredi

Judicious
May 9, 2013
4,999
0
32,960


Hrmmm well if it is that old, you may physically be confusing it because you didn't change the PIN OUT on the drive itself. If you take the old HDD, yes I know it is SATA but I seen a handful once still have the old Primary / Secondary / Auto Pinout shorter installed on it. If the HDD failed (not died as your referring to) it could cause to the non BIOS (I believe you mentioned UEFI) somthing it isn't used to and caused it to 'fail' to do anything because it is sitting confused, would be my second guess. Mainly, put it with a proper USB to SATA (cheap on Amazon) cable see what happens, and then try a secondary system to see if it too has that same problem. If so then it fully confirms the suspicion.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom