Vista will not recognize HDD

[MattJD]

XP would recognize my hard drive, but Vista will not. I load a compatible driver from a flash drive, and it then attempts to show the hard drive and it cannot find it.

I have a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 rev. 3.3 & F10 bios. The hard drive is a WD SE16 250GB SATA. Any suggestions? I used the latest drivers from gigabytes web site, but they are all raid drivers which is probably the problem. I can't seem to find non-raid drivers. The hard drive is showing in the bios.

 

[coronaz]

You only need a driver if you have setup a RAID array.

Are you talking about the install process?

If you don't have a RAID array and are using only a single drive, make sure you have the correct BIOS settings set, i.e.

SATA AHCI mode: disabled
Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode : IDE

 

[MattJD]

Yes, I'm in the install process. I know it's not supposed to require a driver, but I was trying that since it did not recognize the hard drive but the bios will.

I've tried it on those bios settings without luck. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

So far I have:

1. Tried drive in SATAII0 port - not detected
2. Tried drive in GSATAII0 port - not detected
3. Disconnected floppy and retried - not detected
4. Tried ACHI mode in GSATAII0 port - not detected
5. Replaced SATA cable to be thorough - same results

 

[coronaz]

Is the disk split into partitions? I know that Vista will not recognise partitions created by third party products.

 

[MattJD]

Yes, it has a partition on it from when I started an XP install prior to buying Vista. If that needs to be removed, I don't know how to do that. Every time I've installed a hard drive or reinstalled an OS it created a partition and overwrote any existing data.

When I was trying to load drivers during Vista setup, the hard drive showed up as C and had windows files on it. Vista isn't recognizing the drive as present though, which is strange.

 

[coronaz]

So I take it you:

1. Boot from Vista DVD
2. Select Install now
3. Select Custom(Advanced) install
4. Get to "Where do you want to install windows" screen.

From here.. is the list of drives empty? Can you not select delete or format?

Also, do you have any other drives installed? if yes, have you tried running install with them removed.

If you have a different drive, you could also boot into xp from it and go into disk management and delete any partitions on the disk you're having problems with.

 

[MattJD]

Yes, the list of drives is empty. I can't select delete or format.

No other hard drives are installed. I have an old IDE 40gb drive with XP SP2 installed on it that can be plugged in. I'll try to boot XP with that and then go into disk management and delete partitions on the SATA drive as you suggested.

Thanks for the help...

 

[MattJD]

I couldn't boot XP from the other drive. It's the old hard drive from my Dell, so it asks me to activate my version. It won't over the internet, or over the phone when I call.

Edit: It shows the IDE drive as a choice for the install location. I had it formatted and then selected that for the install location, but get the message "Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation."

 

[coronaz]

Move the SATA drive connector into one of the other ports on the mobo.. it might be because you have it installed in the RAID controller ports (the ones on the left).. try plugging it into one of the four ports on the right..

 

[MattJD]

I tried that without luck. Ended up on a 3-way conference call with Microsoft and Gigabyte Friday evening, and they can't figure out what the issue is. At this point the only possibility seems to be a bad hard drive.

I was able to use an old disc to reformat the IDE drive and load Vista onto that. Then I downloaded the Western Digital diagnostics and it looks like this is a bad drive.

Thanks for the help.

 

[coronaz]

Fair enough.. hope the replacement works ok for you!

 

[Guest]

Ok guys here's how i solved a similar problem ona HP Pavilion dv7-1247cl after tryin to install various AMD SATA & RAID drivers. I figured out that prior to the Vista instalation the HDD was formatted with a 3rd party tool. I knew that the vista instalation has problems with that. I decided to splitstream ina an XP instalation the AMD RAID Drivers (otherwise you'll see a blue screen, or XP also wont recognize the HDD) . After doing so i started the XP install and interrupted it, after i created & formated the partitions. Next i started the Vista install and the HDD and the partitions apeared.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: In some cases ( various HP,Compaq, Toshiba notebook series) if the XP install doesn't have the propper chipset and processor drivers it may cause the CPU to overheat severely!!!!! Use the suggested method AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!
Good luck!!!!