2nd SATA drive detected in BIOS but NOT in Windows Disk Management

I have an Intel D915GEV motherboard with the latest bios. My primary hard drive is a Seagate 200GB SATA (ST3200822AS) and I have Windows XP MCE 2005 SP2 running off of it. I just added a second SATA hard drive, a 500GB Seagate (ST3500631NS). This second hard drive gets detected in the bios and even gets detected by SpinRite 6.0 when I boot up. However, it's not showing up anywhere in Windows. It's unformatted, unactivated, so I don't expect it to show up in Windows Explorer, but it's not even in Device Manager or Disk Management. I tried changing to a different SATA port, even used three different SATA cables, but to no avail. I've also done all Windows Updates and tried to update my IDE/SATA drivers from Device Manager.

Any ideas please?

Try running the install/diagnostic/repair software from Seagate

The software is designed specifically to identify and address hdd problems. All hdd mfg have this software, which is why you need to get it from the hdd mfg website. Most have one you can run off Windows and a 2nd version to run off a floppy. If you have a floppy, I'd use that. If the software doesn't find the hdd, then either there is a lose cable or the drive is toast.

The problem may be you're not looking in just the right spot . Click Start, RIGHT-click My Computer in the window, then click on Manage from the menu. In the new Computer Management window expand "Storage" if necessary and click on Disk Management. I expect OP (damaster) and joses both have got this far. Now, examine the TWO right-hand panes. The upper one shows you only the devices Windows already knows how to use. The lower one, which SCROLLS, also shows you other devices Windows does not yet understand. Your new disk should be here with no letter name and no info. RIGHT-click on it and, from the menu, choose to Partition the drive. You'll have a choice of how big it should be and most likely want to use all the drive in one volume. (You can use only part of the space. If you do, when you are finished come back here and find the remainder shown as "Unallocated Space". You can create a second Partition or more in it if you want.) For this first Partition, make it the Primary or Active Partition, and NOT bootable because this drive is for data only - you already have a boot drive. When all the choices are made, go ahead with the Partition operation.

When that is done, come back to this new Partition and RIGHT-click again and choose to Format it. Choose the NTFS File System option. A Quick Format will do the job in 5 to 15 minutes. A Full Format will do a Quick Format, then go though every sector of the drive and test it, marking off any faulty ones (very rare) so they won't be used. Full Format takes many hours!

When you are done, reboot and your newly prepared hard drive should show up in My Computer as an empty unit ready for use.

Any follow-up on this? I have the same issue. I have three SATA drives installed just fine -- two Seagates and a Maxtor. I added a fourth SATA drive (also Seagate), and it does post to the SAS utility during boot, so the BIOS sees it.

And yet, Win XP does not see it. It's not listed in the Disk Management tool, nor in Device Manager or the system info -- even Seagate's SeaTools does not see the drive.

I have switched cables with one of the other working drives, effectively switching their positions in the list, but to no avail.

One last desperate attempt was to try the install CD for Windows 7 RC, which is the main reason I installed this drive n the first place - for the alternate OS. It did not see it, either. Foo!

Ideas?

- John

you gotta go into windows and format the hard drive to use it!

im using vista right now.. so intructions are: control panel > administrative tools > computer management > Storage (tab) > Disk Management (sub-tab)

from there, you should see the new hard drive.. you have to partition it (if you want) and format it to use it! you can also specify the drive label..

in xp, it should be pretty similar..

I just had a devil of a time trying to install a Western Digital 500 GB SATA Hard drive for similar reasons--the drive was recognized in BIOS but not by Windows. I finally found the solution at this link: http://social.technet.microsoft.co [...] f3291e50f. It involves using Windows XP to format the drive! Once that's done, Windows 7 will detect the drive.

I have a Hitachi Deskstar 500GB (just purchased this morning), installed and see it in bios but do NOT see it in disk management. So I can NOT format or partition. Any clue? Is this an indication of a bad hard drive

Hey guys. I've got a possible solution to this.

I had this same issue. The SATA drive in BIOS appeared fine, heck, I even booted into Windows 7 setup CD and PARTITIONED and FORMATTED the drive then exited the Windows 7 setup. Guess what, it still wouldn't appear in Windows 7!

This is a bug. I wrote up a blog post about this here:
http://www.scottbuehler.com/comput [...] howing/233

The short of it, you'll need to go into device manager and uninstall the SATA drive and then reinstall it using "Scan For Hardware Changes"

For the step by step, just visit the URL where I provided the click by click.

I have tried everyones sugestion but still no luck. I am trying to get computer to recognize drive I have a hitachi 2tb 7200rpm hard drive. i can see it in bios. however i tried everything aberchonbie and paperdoc sugested and i get the error that it can not connect to virtual disk service. please any suggestions would be greatly appreciated before i lose my mind.

I had problems adding a second SATA drive in my Dell Dimension 9200. I couldn't get the computer to recognize it. I tried everything, or so I thought, then I went into the the Bios. (reboot and click f2 many times during boot up) On my motherboard there are 6 sata inputs. Only 3 of these sata inputs were "turned on" in the bios. I took a flashlight and looked closely, and written in small letters next to the connector i was using, it said "sata4" I turned it on in the bios. I rebooted... then right clicked on "my computer" and clicked on manage - went to storage devices and located my unformatted drive. I assigned it a drive number and then formatted it.

Don't assume that a hard drive is "plug n play" often they arn't. I learned a lesson, I had no idea that each individual sata input needed to be turned on in the bios...now I know.

hope this helps

Hi guys and girls

I also have a 1 tera byte Hitachi hard drive that is seen on the initial boot up screen,but not in windows at all.

Please help me out.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. H E L P!

Paperdoc, Thank you very much for this post. I just built a new system and Win 7 was't recognzing my 1.5TB second HD even though it was showing in the BIOS. I have now managed to format it thanks to your instructions. Much apprecated. SC

I have the same problem and none of the suggestions worked for me. The sata harddrive that I have has 250 gb and was working fine until suddenly it crashed and then windows could not load. I tried to reinstall windows but the hard drive was not detected. I used another hard drive and connected the malfunctioned hdd via e-sata cable, it is listed in bios, disc management, but not in my computer. it is a seagate 250 gb hdd, but in disc management the capacity is 55 mb! the drive does not have any name, and it is not initialized and when I try to initialize it, it says "the request could not be performed because of an I/O device error". I tried tons of recovery softwares and still nothing. I have very important data on this drive which I really need... Any suggestions?

Well guys if you get any good advice that WORKS please let me know......

Thanks alot guys.

1. What is the mobo - SATA II
2. What HDD's and optical drives do you have installed already? All Sata
3. What OS do you have installed where - Windows XP pro Sp 2
4. Does the new drive have ANYTHING on it you want to preserve, or is it just empty? It can be cleared!
5. Do you plan to move your OS to the new int and make it your boot drive? Or, is this unit to be for data only?- Data only
6. What size Partitions / Volumes do you want? Use it as one huge drive.

This is exactly what I needed to do. Just built my own system, first time with SATA technology. This suggestion hit my problem right on. Many thanks.

Kendrac, it is pretty rare that a drive can show up in BIOS and NOT in Disk Management. Look carefully in Disk Management in the LOWER RIGHT pane, and scroll it to see all the hardware devices it sees. My guess is you'll see it there. It may have no drive letter assigned to it, and that can be addresses by RIGHT-clicking on it and giving it a letter name. But it may also have a File System showing as RAW, which means that some of its structure data has been corrupted and it is not recognized. If that is the case, search the web for way to fix that. Do NOT follow any suggestions to Format the drive.

Well then, your D: drive may have developed a significant hardware fault. Go to the website of its manufacturer and download their free diagnostic utility package. Seagate has Seatools, WD has Data Lifegard. others hae their own. Personally I prefer the version that has you burn your own CD-R and then boot and run from that, completely independent of an OS on your hard drive. Run its tests and write down the info. IF you believe your HDD should be replaced under warranty, the manufacturer probably will want that info before agreeing to do that.

A few items to check:

1. Is the external disk a case and drive you purchased and assembled separately, or is it a complete unit you bought? How old is it? I am wondering whether ti is possible there is a mismatch of first- and second-generation SATA involved. Tell us the make and model number of the external drive.
2. Is the drive connected to your PC by an eSATA cable, or by a USB connection, or by Firewire?
3. If you are using eSATA, is it an eSATA port the was built into your mobo, or are you using an adapter plate on the back that plugs into one of the internal mobo regular SATA ports?
4. What make and model of mobo do you have?
5. If you have an opportunity, can you plug the external drive into another computer and see if it behaves the same?
6. What version of Windows are you using? If you are using an eSATA port built into your mobo, have you loaded any driver necessary for that port into Windows?

Your drive is having some kind of error that Windows cannot handle. Your BIOS can see it (you don't say what the BIOS Setup screens tell you about it). But the long delay as Windows is booting is what happens when Windows encounters an error checking the HDD and re-tries many times before giving up.

You say you tried Seatools and it could not find the disk. I bet you used the version of Seatools for Windows. That software would require that Windows "see" the drive in order to make it available to the software. Go to the Seagate website and download the different version called Seatools for DOS. Get the one that you burn to your own CD-R. You make that disk and then boot from it into a mini-DOS that works entirely independent of Windows or any other OS on any hard drive. It only requires that the BIOS can recognize the HDD you are trying to test. Use that disk to run tests on your used drive.

Now, I find it very interesting that originally My Computer could see it as two drives (Partitions). So at that point windows was NOT having a major problem. Then you "unpartitioned it and then began formatting it...". How? If you used Windows Disk Management to Delete ALL its partitions, one at a time, that should work. BUT you did not say that your next step was to Create a new Primary Partition on that HDD unit. That step MUST be done before you can Format the Partition. Did you do that? Give us a few of these answers for info, and try the Seatools for DOS diagnostics and tell us its output. Then we can help further.

I was having a similar problem as others noted in this thread. My new 1.5 TB drives were recognized by my bios and raid setup bios but they were not in XP disk management. The drives were visible in my raid control software and in the safely remove hardware icon in the tray, but still not in disk management.

Flashing my bios to the latest version made me notice something about the way the raid controller was handling my drives. I noticed that if the raid controller was enabled for a port and the hard drive was not in a raid array, then the drive would not show up in disk management. Disabling the raid on the port would allow windows to see the drive and partition it.

At that point I was able to figure out that the raid controller was woring correctly and set up a mirrored array by turning on the controller on those ports and configuring the array. This then showed up in Windows correctly. I did not know that Windows and the controller would behave this way and did not find anything on the internet that would point me to this.

I had the same problem - BIOS is OK - Disk Management do9es ot show SATA 2 - (windows 2003) - did go to Computer -> Properties -> Hardware ->Device Manager -> Disk Drives - Right Click on Disk Drives and Scan for Hardware Changes --- OS picked the drive and life is good

ethicalid, what you describe MAY be a hard drive with significant problems. It cannot be detected by Windows, you say. But there are various places to look, and you have not told us details of all of them. So let's re-examine.

1. DO NOT REFORMAT your drive. That will most certainly destroy your data, and it may not solve your problem.
2. Go into BIOS Setup and look there whether your BIOS can detect the drive at the hardware level. On most machines, when you turn it on you hold down a key, usually the "Del" key, and wait for a few parts of the POST displays to pass by until it opens the main menu screen of BIOS Setup. Go to the place where your various hard drives are displayed - often the first set of screens. You should be able to see each HDD, and your optical drive(s), displayed separately on different ports. If the troublesome HDD is not showing up here, it has a major hardware problem because the BIOS cannot communicate with it at all. That could be a complete drive failure, or a failure of its own printed circuit board system, a bad connector cable, or even a bad connector itself. If it is not showing up, just check one more thing before you conclude the hardware is dead. Go to the BIOS screen where the port for this drive (IDE or SATA) is set up, and be SURE that port is Enabled. If not, Enable it and set its port mode to AHCI, then go back to the first screen to see if it is showing now. If you did NOT change anything in the BIOS Setup screens, simply Exit from there to finish booting. If you did change a setting, remember to use the right key to Save and Exit.
3. If your drive is showing in BIOS Setup AND its port mode is set to AHCI, the hardware is working and the problem is likely to be in some software issue between the HDD and Windows. We'll use Disk Management to examine. Click on Start and RIGHT-click on My Computer and choose Manage. In the new window expand the Storage heading if necessary and choose Disk Management. The right hand part will subdivide into two windows. The upper one will show you all the devices Windows is using and understands. The LOWER RIGHT pane shows you those PLUS some other hardware that Windows cannot use yet for whatever reason. This portion SCROLLS so you can see all of its contents. Your troublesome disk should show up there, since the BIOS can see it. Each hardware device in the LOWER RIGHT pane is represented by one larger horizontal box. Within it are a smaller box on the left end with some info about the device - type, size, etc. - and then some other sub-boxes to the right. Each of these represents one Partition on the HDD. If there is any space not assigned to a Partition, it will be represented by a box labeled "Unallocated Space". On many drives there may be only one Partition that uses up all of the HDD space. Within a Partition block will be more information. A Partition is treated by Windows as one "drive". Normally it will show you the drive's name like C:, its Volume Name like Harry's Disk or whatever you set it to be, the size of this drive, the File System it uses like NTFS, and a status like Healthy. Now look closely at that information for your troublesome disk. Does the disk have a letter name assigned to it? What does it show for the File system? Is it FAT32 or NTFS? Or, is it called "RAW"?
4. If your File System on that disk is "RAW", that means some of its basic structure information has been corrupted and that is why Windows cannot figure out how to use it. Look around these forums and elsewhere on the web for ways to fix a RAW format HDD. You usually can get it fixed so that all the information on the HDD can be used again.
5. If all the information on that troublesome disk's partition block information is OK but it merely is missing a letter name like F:, you should be able to fix it here. RIGHT-click on the Partition and choose to Change its Name. Give it any letter not already in use. Now exit out of disk Management and reboot so Windows can put this into into its Registry, and you should find the disk in My Computer again.

Whatever you find, post back here and maybe we can help further. Or if we're lucky, you will have your problem fixed and we can cheer!

So I got my new SSD drive. I installed like the directions stated but the drive did not show up when I started windows 7 64bit.. I rebooted, Checked in the BIOS and it was there made sure it was enabled as well. booted window's and still not there. checked under device manager not found, checked through Acronis Cloning Softwear, not found. ran chkdisk still not found. So i took it out tried all SATA ports, tried all power supplies. still same story. I un hooked it and connected VIA USB and the drive was then visiable. formated drive NTSF and thought that would fix problem.. reconnected it via SATA and same story. still not found. Please help for I am at a loss on what to do now.

Sometimes SATA Rev 2.0 devices aren't properly recognized by SATA Rev 1.0 controllers. Most SATA Rev 2.0 drives have a jumper that you can use to force them to use the SATA Rev 1.0 protocol to get around such issues.