"Hard Disk Error" on brand new system ...please help

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
D

dwane_16

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2009
24
0
18,510
I just built what I thought was going to be a great new system ($1,900 worth of it):
Antec Nine Hundred
ntec TruePower New TP-750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3
Asus P6T Deluxe V2
Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Memory
HIS 5850 Video card
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB hard drive (HOOKED-UP SATA)
LITE-ON Black 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS-324-98 - Retail (HOOKED-UP SATA)
LG Black 8X Blu-ray Burner - Bulk SATA Model WH08LS20K - OEM (HOOKED-UP SATA)
Microsoft Windows 7

I was extremely careful to install everything properly per all of the great guides on this site. I have not installed the operating system yet because I cannot get through the BIOS.
I get the one beep like I am supposed to, the memory is detected correctly, the SATA hard drive and optical media drives are auto-detected, but then I get "SATA 1 Hard Disk Error / Press F1 to resume". If I let it go through the normal boot cycle I get "No hard drive is detected!".
When I get into the BIOS the HDD is not there but the opticals are. I disconnect the opticals and plug the HDD into the same SATA ports on the mobo and SATA power cable and still nothing.
I called WD and they said to call ASUS to see if their drive was compatible with the mobo, of course ASUS says their mobo is compatible with all SATA drives, etc...

I thought maybe I needed to install Windows 7 1st to recognize the HDD but it will not start in the optical drives even when I set the BOOT PRIORITY to DVD 1st.

I even held the hard drive while booting to make sure it was spinning and it was.

Any thoughts? My guess is a bad hard drive, but how do I convince WD?

Thanks for any help!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
D

dwane_16

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2009
24
0
18,510


dndhatcher, I tried that too. I also asked ASUS (when Western Digital made me confirm that there was no conflict with their drive) if I needed to have some sort of SATAII driver or something and they said no. They said that since the BIOS was reading the DVD drive in several different SATA ports and not the hard drive in ANY of the ports that they thought the problem was in the hard drive.

One thing that is bothering me is why does the "boot" auto-read the drive (SATA 1...IDE Hard Drive / SATA 2...DVD Drive / SATA 3...DVD Drive) but the BIOS does not recognize the HDD? I disconnected all of the optical drives and tried just the HDD in different SATA ports and I have the same issue: the Hard Drive is "auto-detected" but not shown in the BIOS.

Any more suggestions? The jerk at WD basically said their drives don't have this problem and there must be something else!

Thanks.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dwane_16

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2009
24
0
18,510
I may get flamed for asking this one but the new hard drives do come formatted, right? I hope it is not something silly like that.

Is there an explanation for why the drive would be recognized in the auto-detection when booting but not in the BIOS?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dwane_16

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2009
24
0
18,510


I do have another computer I can try it on. I guess if it doesn't show up in the BIOS of the 2nd computer than it is a bad drive?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
banthracis

banthracis

Distinguished
Oct 13, 2009
3,032
0
21,160



OEM drives don't come formatted.

However, you should still be able to boot off your optical drive using Win 7 DVD and then format your HD.

I'm not fully sure what your problem is. Are you unable to boot off your DVD? Because technically even in unformatted drive it should load drivers, etc and give you options to then partition/format a drive.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dwane_16

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2009
24
0
18,510
Thanks for the response banthracis.

I tried booting off of the Windows 7 disk I have in the DVD drive but it did not boot either. I downloaded a full Windows 7 Professional Student Edition and burned the file to a CD or DVD. Maybe the CD/DVD need to be in another format for booting in a DVD drive?
I was trying so many combinations of SATA optical drives and the SATA hard drive that I can't remember the configuration I had when I tried to boot from the DVD drive. I know I went into the BIOS and had the DVD drive 1st and the HDD 2nd on the boot order.

I have no options to format or partition a drive either.

Basically the hard drive spins, so I know it has power, and the hard drive is "auto-detected" as a SATA drive during the boot, but then I get "Hard Disk Error Press F1 to continue" so I press F1 to go to BIOS and there the hard drive is not shown.

Tonight when I get home maybe I can put the drive in another computer and format it? Do you think that will work or do think the other computer will give me the same "hard disk error"?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dwane_16

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2009
24
0
18,510


What is the simple way to make a bootable DVD?
Seems like the one thing I did not search the web for and answer to.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
banthracis

banthracis

Distinguished
Oct 13, 2009
3,032
0
21,160
Oh well, you should have mentioned all this in the first place!

Ok
1. Your HD is not formatted, that's y its not being recognized.
2. This is NOT an issue as you can boot off a DVD and them format/partition the HD.
3. Student Upgrade thingy requires you to create a bootable iso from the box files you get
instructions here:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/10/23/how-to-create-and-make-bootable-windows-7-iso-from-exe-plus-setup1-box-and-setup2-box-files/

4. However, you can just DL the bootable iso
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/11/10/windows-7-iso-x86-and-x64-official-direct-download-links-ultimate-professional-and-home-premium/

5. Burn the iso, w/e way you make it onto a DVD and use that to boot. Then format your HD and install the OS.

During OS installation do not enter your student upgrade key. Just click next. Wait until windows is installed, then register and enter the key. Student keys read invalid during the installation process for some odd reason, though they're perfectly legal and work fine after installation is complete.

I take it this is your first build =P
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dwane_16

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2009
24
0
18,510



I was hoping it wouldn't be so obvious that this is my 1st build.
Honestly, I have read sooooo many pages and guides on this site and not one of them mentioned having to format the hard drive! I thought in this day and age the drives came pre-formatted.

So when I make the iso boot disk and install it will there simply be an option to format hard drive or do i have to enter some DOS commands?

I will try the iso file as you show above and get back to you...thanks so much!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
banthracis

banthracis

Distinguished
Oct 13, 2009
3,032
0
21,160
Haha no prob, there's ton's of little details not mentioned in guides you really gotta do a few builds to figure out. I remember my first build I had no idea you could daisy chain fans so I ended up buying like 4 molex splitter cables =D

But yea, the way MS handled the student upgrades was dumb, they should have just made it a bootable iso in the first place.

OEM HD's are not formatted as I guess as a way to save cost, and I guess cuz the whole OEM system was originally meant for boutique builders who may have had their own preferred format. We buy OEM parts because they're cheaper than the retail version which are the parts actually meant to be sold to consumers.

For formatting yes, after you load all the drivers, etc, there will be a window asking you to choose a HD/partition to install the OS onto. It'll list in a chart HD's you have installed, partitions, size of partitions and /or if something is unformattted. There'll be options to create partitions, format partition and something i can't remember off the top of my head. Just follow onscreen directions, it's pretty foolproof.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dwane_16

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2009
24
0
18,510
so should I partition it or just format the the whole 1TB drive as 1 drive? Advantages / disadvantages?

I am not doing any RAID, just one 1TB SATA HDD.

You mentioned the power cable too...should the HDD be a dedicated cable from the power supply? Can the two DVD drives share a cable? What about the fans, can they share a power cable?

Thanks again!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
banthracis

banthracis

Distinguished
Oct 13, 2009
3,032
0
21,160
Benefits read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning

However, generally I don't bother partitioning cept for a recovery partition. I think Win 7 creates one automatically? Not 100% sure.

But yea, unless you plan on having multiple OS, or you're making a server where large number of ppl have their own private drives (actually these are partitions on the server, but read as drives for the end user), the main reason to partition would be to separate the OS from media/games.

I'd recommend at least having 2 partitions, 1 for the recovery and 1 for the other stuff. If you're paranoid you can partition OS away from media/games. However, partitioning doesn't stop virus from damaging your OS, so really of minimal use to a general user.

I assume you don't have a modular PSU. In that case it really doesn't matter as each cable has multiple plugs on it. Feel free to use em all as you won't run into load problems on those cables. Any decent PSU will run into rail load limits long before it runs into cable load limits.

So no, you can plugs 3 HD's or 1 HD and 2 DVD's to 1 cable, w/e as long as the cables reach the different things. Fans you can daisy chain practically an unlimited number to a single molex. Power draw from fans is so low its a non issue unless you managed to fit a few thousand fans in your case.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dwane_16

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2009
24
0
18,510


That's what I was thinking too.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dwane_16

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2009
24
0
18,510
OK, so I made a bootable copy of the Windows 7 64-bit student edition download.
I installed it into the DVD drive and booted the system.
Windows started to install and then said it needed a driver for the hard drive.
I looked for a driver on Western Digital's website but found none. The WD site that ALL of their Caviar Black drives are compatible with Windows 7.
I go to Microsofts Website and it says that the WD Caviar Black 1TB is compatible in the 32-bit version but not yet in the 64-bit...yaaah!

At this point I removed the drive and installed it into my older computer with the same results...not recognized in BIOS.

I called Western Digital and asked about this Windows 7 driver and they said that no driver was needed and that it should plug-and-play since it is a SATA drive. When I told them that BIOS was not recognizing the drive and that it was spinning they said that the drive must be bad. They are overnighting one to me, should have it Monday. They were very accommodating when I described the pains I have been going through to get this system up and going. They also said that their drives are already formatted when they leave the factory.

So, we will see what happens when I get the new drive on Monday!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom