GA-MA785G-UD3H - Hard Drive not detected during Windows 7 Install

[thegeorge613]

Hello everyone. First time poster and system builder (albeit budget system lol) here. Great looking site!

Like the thread says, I'm having trouble during the (fresh) install stage of Windows 7 Home 64-bit, at the part where you choose which hard drive to install Windows to. My hard drive just wouldn't show up, no matter what I try. Already double checked all the power and SATA connections, and hard drive is showing up in the BIOS. Tried both native IDE and AHCI modes, and still no luck. When it prompted me to load drivers, I tried the drivers on the CD that came with the motherboard and the driver I downloaded off the Gigabyte site, and it still didn't work.

Specs:

AMD 2.4 GHz Phenom X3 8750
MA785G-UD3H motherboard
WD Caviar Blue WD2500AAJS 250GB 7200RPM hard drive
4GB DDR2 800 RAM

Help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[jbrealey]

You need to load:
AMD SATA AHCI Driver (Preinstall driver, press F6 during Windows* setup to read from floppy

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/Driver_Model.aspx?ProductID=3138&ost=windows+7+64bit#anchor_os

heres the link directly to the mobo's driver webpage.
download the newer one 3.1.1540.127

it says you'll need to unzip the files put them on a floppy disk when hitting f6 during windows setup and put the floppy in and then, it will find the drive.

typically w/windows 7, you can just load those files on a usb stick or thumb drive and when it ask for a hard drive. pop that bad boy in and say load drivers point to the usb drive and "should" find the drive and your off to the races.

-Jav

 

[lumpy]

You need to load:
AMD SATA AHCI Driver (Preinstall driver, press F6 during Windows* setup to read from floppy

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/Driver_Model.aspx?ProductID=3138&ost=windows+7+64bit#anchor_os

heres the link directly to the mobo's driver webpage.
download the newer one 3.1.1540.127

it says you'll need to unzip the files put them on a floppy disk when hitting f6 during windows setup and put the floppy in and then, it will find the drive.

typically w/windows 7, you can just load those files on a usb stick or thumb drive and when it ask for a hard drive. pop that bad boy in and say load drivers point to the usb drive and "should" find the drive and your off to the races.

-Jav

Im stunned that win 7 didnt have drivers.Ive installed win7 6 times never had this problem.old and new pcs.

 

[thegeorge613]

Thanks! I'll go try that tonight.

 

[bilbat]

The Intel AHCI drivers are 'native'; the AMDs and GBs (jMicrons) are not, I believe...

 

[thegeorge613]

Ok, I tried Jav's method, downloaded the drivers from Gigabyte's website, and loaded the drivers when Windows asked for them. Windows still didn't detect my hard drive. Then I went back to the motherboard manual, loaded the drivers on the CD onto a flash drive and tried to load them, and still didn't work. Already tried different settings in the BIOS also, except for RAID (and not looking to use RAID; only using a single hard drive).

Seems like a last resort, but does it seem like it's time for a BIOS update? My tech knowledge is just a little above average, and I'm looking for some expert opinion and perhaps other options before I go that route.

 

[bilbat]

Well, F4, once again, updated the top-secret, NDA-only AGESA start-up code, which does the hardware 'discovery' - could be the issue... Just be sure to do it safely, do NOT, ever, use the @BIOS board-killer!

 

[thegeorge613]

Tried the F4 BIOS update, and re-tried all the drivers after the update, and still no dice. I have a new hard drive on the way from Newegg, and will try the new hard drive once it arrives. Still, I doubt it's the hard drive failing, since I've only heard hard drives failing mechanically, and there were no weird sounds from mine that suggests that, and the BIOS detects the hard drive fine.

As a very last resort, I thought of copying the hard drive partition from my laptop (running XP) to the hard drive that I'll be using in my new computer, and just try to run with that to at least put the equipment to use. However, I've only done something similar when I upgraded my laptop's hard drive, and I'm not sure if it'll work when going from laptop to desktop.

 

[jbrealey]

Also maybe try a different sata port on the mobo to plug your hard drive in? usually when motherboards come w/on board raid they are the first couple of sata ports. try popping your hard drive sata cable in port 4 see if it detects? just a thought if you can't get your raid controller driver installed. also in bios try turning off raid?

-Jav