HD Installation issues

[shanekoller]

Hello all,
Just purchased a Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive and installed it in an old system that I intend to use as a household “server” (primarily just storage).

Installed the drive , it shows up in my device manager, but not in “my Computer”. I am not able to push any files to the drive and am unsure if I need to make changes in the bios for a RAID configuration or what. The SATA drive is “enabled” within the bios.
Ultimately I would like to put several more 1TB drives in here for mass storage but wondering if it is going to work with the current build or how I need to do it. Been a long time since I have dug in a PC.

I used the cable which came with the drive to link to the mobo, and had to purchase a Hama Serial ATA power cable in order to link power to the PSU. Serial ATA=SATA correct?

The box says compatability w/ WIN 200/XP/Vista. However, when I went to install the drivers from disk the disk driver was only for 2000/XP. I thought HD’s are normally just plug and play for the most part anyway.

I am assuming I am just fudging something up.

Here is the PC Build of the would-be server prior to the HD uprade:

CAS: NZXT Nemesis Metal Mid-Tower Case 400W W/ side-panel Window (BLACK COLOR)
CPU: (939-pin) AMD(TM) ATHLON(TM)64 3500+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology CD: COMBO DRIVE (16X DVD-ROM & 52x32x52 CD-RW) (BEIGE COLOR)
FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 6in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BEIGE COLOR)
FAN: AMD ATHLON64 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK
HDD: 80GB 7200 RPM ATA 100 HARD DRIVE
MOTHERBOARD: (Sckt939)MSI K8N NEO4-F nForce4 Chipset SATA Raid PCI-E w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio
MEMORY: 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
POWERSUPPLY: STANDARD CASE POWER SUPPLY
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
SPEAKERS: 600WATT PMPO SUBWOOFER STEREO SPEAKERS
USB: Build-in USB 2.0 Ports
VIDEO: NVIDIA Geforce 6200 Graphics with TurboCache supporting 256MB 16X PCI Express VIDEO CARD

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[r_manic]

Yes, HDDs are mostly P&P. So there must be either an issue with your installation, the SATA port, the SATA cable, the hard drive, or the motherboard you're using.

 

[shanekoller]

I initially thought it was an installation issue as well. However, if the drive shows up in the device manager and not in My Computer is it possible that it installed correctly and I need to set it up an alternative way? (i.e. bios etc.)

 

[Paperdoc]

Do you know how to Partition and Format a brand new empty drive? Those operations MUST be done before Windows can use it. They can be done within Windows using tools is Disk Manager. Or, even easier, you can download from your HDD maker's website some utilities for this purpose. In the WD case, look for their Data Lifegard free download.