2nd SATA Hard Drive Not Detected in BIOS or Setup

Hello & Welcome to Tom's Hardware!

You need to take this one step at a time to determine if the HDD has failed or if there is another cause.
First Boot up to you splash screen and enter the BIOS
On the CMOS page look and report what HDD, DVD, etc devices the BIOS recognizes. The first one should be your IDE system drive.

If it does not see your slave HDD, check to make sure the HDD has power, and you can hear it spinning up or feel a slight vibration touching the outer top metal part of the case. Also change the SATA cable from it to your MB.

That could fix the problem
If the 2nd HDD is recognized in the BIOS, Boot up to windows and go to the Device manager and see what Disk Drives are seen by the OS.

Then report back your results

Thanks Mr. John_vankirk,

I checked by your way. I tested my HDD. Its working as you said i feel running vibration when I touch the top. I changed new SATA cable,power cable and connected after reboot it is getting hang over before starting the CMOS BIOS screen(At Intel mother board screen shot). So what will be the problem? My 1st IDE HDD working normal way when 2nd SATA HDD detached.

Thanks Mr. John_vankirk,

I checked by your way. I tested my HDD. Its working as you said i feel running vibration when I touch the top. I changed new SATA cable,power cable and connected after reboot it is getting hang over before starting the CMOS BIOS screen(At Intel mother board screen shot). So what will be the problem? My 1st IDE HDD working normal way when 2nd SATA HDD detached.

Hello again,

Do you mean that without your secondary HDD being connected to the MB, all works OK. But when the secondary HDD is connected, to either the SATA port after your primary connection, or another SATA port, you can't even boot up to see the Splash Screen? If so it is definitely a hardware issue with the HDD.

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Dear Sir,
Let me know one thing my hard disc is not at all recognizing then is there possibility of data recovery? 2. We are buying 1TB hard disc means to store the data then why seagate authorised service stations will not give my hard disc by fixing recognisation problem and return (without data loss)? Service people are telling that you will loose all the data whether it get repaired or replace. If it is must and can't get repaired then its OK, even for repair data to lost?

Hi Penchal,

There are a couple more things to do, to determine where the problem is. Take the 2nd HDD and connect it to a different computer to see if it works OK. If it still does not work, it is the HDD and needs replacement. In that case, there is no way to efficiently retrieve the data.

You might also try on your present computer to reset the BIOS (instructions in your manual). Make sure the computer is turned off before resetting. And you might try the bad HDD on a separate SATA port on the MB to rule a bad port as the cause, although it should be oK since it is OK without the HDD attached.

If no luck, then have it replaced.

Dear Sir,
I tried by connecting to others computer MB even though it is not detecting. So shall I loose my entire data by getting replacement of HD? I think data is not corrupted but some reading head might be damaged. In this case is there any option without lost my data?

Hi Penchal,

If you have connected it to another MB, and it is not detected in the BIOS, then there a problem with the Drive mechanism. That doesn't mean the data is missing, it means the drive won't work so you can get to it. If nothing looks or smells burnt on the PCB board, then the only good option is to send it to a data recovery company, such as OnTrack or SecureDataRecovery, but they can be very expensive.

Dear Si,
I visited seagate service center and asked for without deleting or formatting my HD do repaire and give it back but they said once you get repaired or replaced with fresh one the data will be lost.
My problem is not data corruption, I hope the head of HD is failed. So that it is not reading that why it is not recognising. If the head reads HD will recognise automatically. Isn't it?

Hi Penchal,

No there are multiple components within the HDD case, besides the PCB, there are a couple discs, a spindle, a motor, several heads, an amplifier chip, the acruator, the magnets.

When you send a HDD back to Seagate, because its original cost wasn't more than $150, they aren't going to spend more than probably 30 minutes placing it on test equipment, evaluating it, and if in warranty, just sending you a replacement from their inventory. They are not going to take it apart to replace internal components.

A data recovery company, like Gillware Inc data recovery service, Madison, WI or Knoll OnTrack data recovery service, Eden Prairie, MN. will do everything possible to recover the data, including replacing components or making it functional to extract the data. Those services are VERY expensive, working with critical data and forensic data.
Depends on how important and valuable the data is.

Dear Sir,
Thanks for your valuable tips till the date.
Thanks a lot once again.
Regards,
Penchal

I am having this same problem with my Seagate 7200 Barracuda. I haven't yet been able to check the serial number on this drive to see if it is one of the drives affected, but Seagate apparently sold some drives that were manufactured in 2008 as 7200.11, and some of these drives had firmware issues that caused this very problem. My drive died while I was on FB. Luckily I had a Pata drive that has a Pata to Sata adapter on it that I used to use with this M2A-VM Asus MOBO. I got back up and running on the Pata with a fresh Windows install, but I am having a little trouble finding a utility that will access a drive that my BIOS is not seeing. The drive was showing up in BIOS when the error first occurred, but Windows installer could not see it. Now that I have it as a secondary it no longer shows up in the BIOS. I am wondering it the Pata to Sata adapter on my Pata drive could be hindering something on top of my firmware issue? The two drives, of course, are on separate channels, being that this M2A-VM is a Sata 3M MOBO. Anyone know if there's a way to update the firmware from a stone cold drive like mine? I am going to power off for a minute and double check my cables and all, but my BIOS did not show the Barracuda after post when I just reconnected the cables. I never took it out of the case, but now just have the data cable as secondary. Jumper free connections, aren't they, on Sata MOBO's?