My Mother board only detects one Hard drive

[Mai Tai]

This is my situation.
I have one 30 SSD sata 3, and one Sata 3 HDD 500GB.
MObo is MSI G31t M v1.0

My mother board only detects the SSD but not the HDD. I tried to hook another HDD 160Gb sata 3 and got the same problem.
The two HDD sometime showed up in BIOS but couldnt see in Window and it caused the boot up very slow. When I tried to reset the PC it disappeared again.
The two HDDs are detected by another PC of Mine and load everything just fine. So the problem is not the HDD.
I tried to update Bios, didnt use jumper because my mobo support sata 3.
I tried to use the same sata and power cables of the SSD to use for HDD to check of the cables or sata port are bad, unfortunately HDD did not show up at all.
its super weird. I tried all the 4 sata port on the mobo , they worked for ssd but not for HDD.
My config has been using HDD to boot window 7 and vista before. I just used SSD as my main win boot lately and HDD as storage.
My

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, Mai Tai!

I'd suggest to reset the BIOS settings and maybe re-seat the CMOS battery, then try to detect that HDD again.
Here are several different ways to reset it: http://www.wikihow.com/Reset-Your-BIOS
If both the HDD and the SSD are bootable drives, there might be some kind of OS confusion that prevents your mobo from detected the second HDD. You should really try resetting the BIOS and see if that will work.

Hope this helps. Keep me posted!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Brighttail]

Also while you are at it, try a different SATA cable and SATA port. I have had these cables go dead a few times on me in the past.

 

[Mai Tai]

My correction.
My MSI G31T-m V1 has 4 SaTA 2 3Gbs port.
and running Intel(r) 82801GB/GR?GH (ICH7 Family) serial ATA storage controller.
The SSD And HDD are Sata III capable.
I only have one bootable win install on SSD. The HDD is new and blank.
@Super_soph WD: I tried to reset the CMOS and BIOS but no luck.
@Brighttail: I tried all the 4 sata II port on mobo and used 2 different new cable.
As i mentioned before, My mobo only detects the SSD. I used the same cable, power cable and sata port detected by mobo to use for the HDD, but the mobo didnt detect the HDD.
Again, my HDDs are working fine.
I am buying a new board..but really want to find the problem and solution.

 

[Brighttail]

Your motherboard has
• 2 x Ultra DMA100/66 devices
• 4 x Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s devices
Have you installed all the drivers available. The 2 x ultra may have additional drivers you need to install.
The 3.0Gb/s connectors shwould work on sata 2 and 3 so even if your HDD is Sata 2 it should still down grade. I dont' thin there should be an issue with having a Sata 3 cable plugged into a sata 2 device.

At this point i'm as stuck as you are

 

[Mai Tai]

@Brighttail: Yes, I installed all the driver for them one is ultra and one for serial ATA. When i disabled the INtel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 27DF , the Optical DVD drive wont work. I connected the DVD drive to IDE port.

However, The HDD sometime was detected by the Mobo seen in BIOS, but when I exit out to boot win, it disappeared again.
I dont why it only detect the SSD.

 

[Brighttail]

There was another thread i was looking through where the older hard drive couldn't recognize the new architecture and it required a firmware update. I'm running out of ideas here.

 

[Mai Tai]

Thank you bro. It gave me the headache for 2 days.
I am not giving up to find the solution then.

 

[Brighttail]

I hope you do, let me know if you do. Having one SSD which is newer be detected and a 500GB which is a bit older not leads me to believe it could be that it isn't compatible, but even then.. still is strange.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hi again, Mai Tai!

To add to Brighttail's awesome troubleshooting suggestions, I'd also recommend to try this particular HDD in another computer and see if it will get detected there. If it doesn't, then it's the HDD that needs replacement, not your mobo.
You said your HDD is new, there are cases when products get damaged while shipping. So I'd suggest you to call your manufacturer's tech support for further assistance. You should be able to RMA your HDD and get a replacement for it.

Hope this helps. Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Mai Tai]

My two new HDD one from WD and one from Seagate which were not detected by my MSI mobo, but they are detected by another PC. I used seagate tool and WD tool to check on these 2 HDDS. They passed all the tests.
I will buy another SSD to test on my MSI mobo again. If it is detected, it means something wrong with the Bios or sata Port that prevent it ti connect to HDD

 

[Brighttail]

Let u know how it goes!!!
Please remember to choose the best solution for your answer.