Windows not recognizing hard drive

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TheIronDUke

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Aug 22, 2013
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Hi,
I just built my first computer and am in the windows instal process but windows setup is not recognizing my hard drive. What do I do. I have the cables firmly attached.
Thanks,
Duke
 
Solution
The_Prophecy
If you swapped the cables from the optical drive and the WD Blue still isn't detected, it's a pretty safe bet that it's DOA. Regardless of controller mode (AHCI or Legacy), the drive should be detected in the BIOS.
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The_Prophecy

The_Prophecy

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May 16, 2006
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Two possibilities.

1. Assuming you are installing Windows from a flash drive instead of a DVD, make sure your install media is not plugged into a USB 3.0 port. Some controllers will let you boot the install media, only to leave you with no access to the internal hard drives to install to. Move to a USB 2.0 port and you should be fine.

2. You are missing drivers required for the install to detect your hard drives. Usually this occurs when you have a RAID array configured. Locate the drivers from the motherboard manufacturers website (or from the RAID controller card makers site if you have a separate RAID card installed), extract the drivers to the install media - so you can view the inf, sys, and cat files directly.... Windows setup cannot look into archives like .zip files. Once you get to the screen showing available drives, click Load Drivers, select the driver you need, and your drives should appear in the list.
 
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The_Prophecy

The_Prophecy

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Please do not demand answers like this. The people assisting on this forum (myself included) are volunteers. We do not owe you anything. I'm happy to continue assisting, but keep in mind that we have lives too, and will not hesitate to walk away.
 
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The_Prophecy

The_Prophecy

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May 16, 2006
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No worries... I get it. I've had plenty of days like that lately.

Go into the BIOS on the motherboard (the board manual will tell you the key to press to get into the BIOS if you don't already know what it is) and change the SATA controller back to Legacy or IDE mode. I've seen drives also not show up when the controller is in AHCI mode.

If that makes them appear, go to your board manufacturers website and grab the SATA controller drivers so you can install Windows using AHCI. I always encourage using AHCI so that Hot Swapping and NCQ (Native Command Queuing) is available. Hot swapping allows drives to be removed without having to power down the system (except the boot drive), and NCQ allows drives to more efficiently retrieve data.
 
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