Second HD Not Recognized in Win 7

[ZenAgain]

Hello,

I just built my first PC with the following:

Intel DP55WB Motherboard
Intel Core i5 750 CPU
MSI ATI 5770 Video Card
4GB Corsair XMS3 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
Coolmax CU 700W PSU
Kingston 30GB SSD
Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB SATA HD
Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit (installed on the Kingston SSD)

For the most part, everything went well and it's working fine, except that the Western Digital 1.5TB HD is not recognized anywhere -- not in the BIOS or in the Win 7 Disk Management.

I checked the SATA connections and they're fine. I then swapped the Western Digital 1.5TB HD with an older Western Digital 500GB from my old PC but that did not show up anywhere either. I've updated the BIOS and also tried changing my BIOS settings to RAID but that led to a BSOD, so it's back to the AHCI setting. I also installed the Intel Matrix Storage Manager but that didn't help either. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Paperdoc]

Concentrate on getting the SATA drive recognized in BIOS Setup. Windows cannot use it if the BIOS cannot see it.

It is puzzling that both the new 1.5 TB unit and an older 500 GB used HDD do NOT show up anywhere. If you know the 500 GB unit is good and it still cannot be detected by the SATA port of the new system, that would suggest the mobo is faulty. But just to be sure, verify in BIOS Setup that your SATA ports are Enabled and set to AHCI mode. And of course, check both data cable and power connections to the SATA drive. Try also using different cables, or a different SATA port on the mobo.

By the way, how is your SSD connected - on a SATA port?

 

[ZenAgain]

Concentrate on getting the SATA drive recognized in BIOS Setup. Windows cannot use it if the BIOS cannot see it.

It is puzzling that both the new 1.5 TB unit and an older 500 GB used HDD do NOT show up anywhere. If you know the 500 GB unit is good and it still cannot be detected by the SATA port of the new system, that would suggest the mobo is faulty. But just to be sure, verify in BIOS Setup that your SATA ports are Enabled and set to AHCI mode. And of course, check both data cable and power connections to the SATA drive. Try also using different cables, or a different SATA port on the mobo.

By the way, how is your SSD connected - on a SATA port?

Good advice, Paperdoc. The SSD is connected by SATA as well and I have two DVD drives connected by SATA, so the ports are enabled and set to AHCI. I've switched SATA cables but nothing changes. I am still pretty baffled by the whole thing as well.

I took the WD 1.5TB drive to my work's tech guru and after putting it an older PC, he verified that the drive is good, so you may be right about the mobo. He's offered to do a complete diagnostic check on the whole thing, so hopefully he'll find what the problem is. In the meantime, if anybody has other suggestions, please send them along.

 

[elel]

Are you sure that you have checked everywhere in BIOS? In mine, you can only see the primary HDD in the boot order menu; there is a second menu to select the primary drive.

 

[ZenAgain]

Are you sure that you have checked everywhere in BIOS? In mine, you can only see the primary HDD in the boot order menu; there is a second menu to select the primary drive.

Good point, elel. There are two menu places in my BIOS where my drives show up -- in the Configuration, SATA settings and in the Boot Order. In both menu places, all my SATA drives show up, except for the WD 1.5TB.

 

[Paperdoc]

A drive has to be configured and detected by the BIOS before it can be shown as available for choosing in the Boot Priority Sequence screen.

Since you have SATA devices already connected and operating on some SATA ports, as a test you should disconnect one of them (say, an optical drive) at the drive unit and plug its data cable into your 1.5 TB HDD. Likewise, move the power supply connector over to your HDD temporarily. If the HDD still cannot be detected in BIOS when connected to known-good cables and port, you have to suspect the HDD itself.