My 2tb hdd can't be seen in bios or disk manager

[turtless]

I'm having a difficult time solving this problem. I just purchase a seagate 2tb hdd for storage, when I installed it, it is not seen in both bios or disk manager. I installed it on an external drive and it works. I tried other sata port, I have 6 on my motherboard currently have three 1.5tb seagate and 1 western digital, my sytem is window xp pro sp3. What can be the problem? I did notice when I connect the 2tb the computer loads up windows really slow, but when I disconnect it xp loads up fast. Not sure if this will help?

 

[turtless]

Thanks for quick response, I tried the jumper and it didnt work? I think your right though, my hdd is sata2 I believe. And my board is Sata1, I think. More about my system: motherboard Asus P5G43T-M PRO, Seagate ST32000540AS 2TB HDD (came from an external drive seagate expansion), WINXP PRO SP3. Any other solution, can I update anything? My bios is up to date.

 

[popatim]

check for a bios update from asus. Did you load AHCI drivers?

 

[Paperdoc]

popatim has a good point. Xp does not know how to use AHCI (or native SATA) devices without having a driver loaded into it. So you must choose one of two options. The first is you can go into your BIOS Setup screens to where the SATA ports are enabled and look near there for a Port Mode setting. Set it to IDE (or PATA) Emulation to make the actual SATA drive appear to be an IDE drive that XP already understands. The second choice is to set this to AHCI (or maybe Native SATA) mode, and then you MUST load an AHCI driver into Windows XP after it boots, then reboot. Either way you should see your drive.

 

[turtless]

I just tried the AHCI switch and now it doesnt bootup windows. I did a bunch of research on how to update AHCI driver. I tried this method but didnt work: http://www.theacerguy.com/2009/01/how-to-install-the-ahci-drivers-after-installing-xp-in-ide-mode-2nd/
I know this method is for a acer, but I figure I give it shot. Any suggetion on what else I can do on how to make AHCI to work?

 

[jitpublisher]

Having the BIOS in IDE mode or AHCI won't keep the BIOS from detecting the drive.
Do you have the SATA port you have it plugged into turned on in the BIOS?
Your board has 6 plugs, 4 of which are probably controlled by the Intel SATA controller, and 2 which are likely controlled by a secondary SATA controller.
Since you have 4 drives connected already, you are likely plugging into a different onboard controller now.
Get your motherboard book out.

 

[turtless]

Yup, all 6 ports is on auto detect in BIOS. I plug in the working drive on the 2 open ports and they both are detecting the 1.5tb hdd. I think its either the mother using winxp doesnt reconize 2tb hdd. Too bad I dont have any other OS to test it on.

 

[jitpublisher]

Yup, all 6 ports is on auto detect in BIOS. I plug in the working drive on the 2 open ports and they both are detecting the 1.5tb hdd. I think its either the mother using winxp doesnt reconize 2tb hdd. Too bad I dont have any other OS to test it on.

OS does not matter either. The BIOS should detect the drive, even if you have no OS installed at all.

 

[Paperdoc]

Did I get this right? You are trying to connect to the last two SATA ports, which are run by a different controller chip. You have verified that BOTH of these ports DO detect and use a 1.5 TB unit correctly, but neither can detect the 2.0 TB unit in BIOS, nor in Windows. (If it's not showing in BIOS, Windows will never see it.) You also claim that the 2.0 TB unit was mounted in an external enclosure and worked there just fine. So far that is puzzling and leaves few explanations possible. But one that COULD explain this is you are connecting a SATA II new drive to a SATA (original) port and the drive is failing to auto-adjust to that situation. HOWEVER, you also say that you DID try setting a jumper on the new 2.0 TB unit to force it to the older SATA mode, and that still did not work. Are you sure you set that jumper correctly?

If all these facts are correct, I'm stumped! Win XP Pro with SP3 certainly CAN deal with 2 TB drive units.