Hard Drives Showing as Generic STORAGE DEVICE

quejim

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Jan 16, 2018
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510
So I have a primary drive and a secondary drive, both standard HDDs, and on the BIOS screen all I see is one “Generic STORAGE DEVICE.”

This started happening after I tried to boot windows onto my friend’s new hard drive. I unplugged all of mine and plugged his in, along with a CD drive.
However, that drive refused to just work and we ended up having to exchange it for another one, which worked immediately.

During our several hours of hair pulling, however, I attempted to plug my primary drive back in and install windows onto the new one from the desktop. On startup, we thought we heard a pop, and the drive wasn’t displaying on the BIOS screen.

Now, when I have both of my original drives plugged in, the screen only displays one generic storage device, and it seems like the primary drive doesn’t display on the BIOS screen whatsoever.

I’m fairly sure that the primary is dead, unfortunately. I’m not sure if there’s anything I can do about the drive, but any help is appreciated. I’m now concerned for the secondary drive, as the nail in the coffin for my friend’s old-new drive was that it was only displaying as the same generic storage device and would no longer display as a drive with X amount of MB of storage.

UPDATE: So I’ve now learned that even if both drives are uninstalled, the BIOS screen still detects one “Generic STORAGE DEVICE.” I
I’m now completely at a loss. My friend’s new-new drive has windows installed and works fine with the computer as well, so again, I’m just at a loss.
 

RolandJS

Reputable
Mar 10, 2017
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That is easy; however, I remember some desktops where there was more than one screw (up to four) to remove and the removable cover was actually a single piece that covered both sides and the top of the desktop. I think some of the earlier Compaqs and some of the earlier Dells were that way.
 
Disconnect all SATA, USB drives and USB headers from the motherboard. Just leave the keyboard connected. Enter the BIOS and restore default values ('Load Optimized Defaults') and save settings. Power off. Connect the primary SATA drive and see if it works. Then connect the other SATA drive and finally USB headers.
 

quejim

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Jan 16, 2018
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Unfortunately I’ve tried that already, with no success. It appears that both of the drives are not active when plugged in, though. There doesn’t seem to be any turning or spinning from within.
 

quejim

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Jan 16, 2018
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510
Yeah, I tried connecting both drives to my friend’s computer. The primary drive wasn’t recognized and neither was my original secondary, even after booting from his primary.