BIOS can not detect HDD

[bukac999]

Hello, i installed new motherboard Gigabyte G41-MT-D3V with old CPU and ram. Pentium dual core e5700 3.00ghz 4gb kingston 1333mhz ram. The bios can detect the ram and processor, however it can not detect my hard drive. my motherboard supports SATA 2 and my HDD is SATA1 but everyone told me it should work.Well, it seems they were lying to me because i can not get in to a windows or do anything because i get error there is no hard disk. The hd is SAmsung 160GB and it says SATA 3gbs , however next to it is something about 1,5gbps mod and some jumpers or what i really dont understand those things, could you please explain this to me and tell me what could be the problem?

 

[Paperdoc]

On many SATA II (more properly, SATA 3 GB/s) drives there is a way to force it to slow down its communications with the mobo controller by installing a jumper on a particular set of pins on the back edge. This forces it to behave like a SATA I (more properly, SATA 1.5 Gb/s) unit. Usually this is not necessary, and it is only necessary with certain older mobos that have particular chips on them for SATA I ports. But since your mobo has SATA II ports, your HDD should work with them no matter whether you have left it as SATA II or inserted a jumper to make it SATA I.

For starters, if the HDD has a diagram on its label to show you how to set it to SATA I, make sure the jumper you see is set exactly that way. On some drive units, setting a jumper the wrong way can make the drive do odd things, and even appear dead when it is OK. Next, consider this: to make your drive work as a SATA II unit (the same as the controllers on your mobo), just REMOVE all jumpers. The default setting is NO jumpers.

Now, you say your BIOS does not detect the drive, but the evidence you offer is that "i can not get in to a windows or do anything because i get error there is no hard disk". This does not sound like you actually have looked in the BIOS Setup screens to see what the BIOS has to say about all this. Do you know how to get into the BIOS Setup screens and move around there to read info, then exit out safely without changing anything? If not, post here and we can help. If you do know how, tell us what the BIOS has to say about this drive. Also tell us what the SATA Port Mode setting is (should be very near where you Enable the SATA ports), AND what version of Windows you are using.

Lastly, I'm wondering if you actually have this very different problem: some people upgrade their machines with new components like mobos, etc., but no change of hard drive which already contains an installed version of Windows. When they try to start up, Windows tries and fails to load. This is because the old installed version does not have all the device drivers it needs to handle the devices on the new mobo. So, if that is what you are trying, let us know and we can advise on how to fix that.

 

[bukac999]

Well, i dont have time at the moment so i suggest if i take my Computer to some PC builder in my town he could be able to solve this problem or find me some HDD that will work?

 

[Paperdoc]

I would expect a good builder or service person would know how to investigate your problem and determine whether you have a fault component somewhere, or just a configuration setting problem.

 

[bukac999]

yep in the bios i found only something about IDE however my mobo has SATA 2 so i dont really understand this. I was able to build whole computer alone , including processor and i also choosed the components but this is already too difficult, because i personaly hate BIOS i cant find anything there :{

 

[bukac999]

Okay, so i started my PC again because i wanted to look into BIOS.
If i let pc boot without entering BIOS or doing anything this appears:

Verifying DMI Pool Data......Update Success
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER.

Then i restarted PC and looked in to BIOS.Only thing i found in BIOS was settings and it looked like this:

IDE Chanell 0 Master [none]
IDE Chanell 0 Slave [none]

IDE Chanell 1 Master [none]
IDE Chanell 1 Slave [none]

When i press enter i get this:

Extended IDE Drive [Auto]
Access mode [Auto]

When i change this to manual i have to put following informations:

Capacity

Cylinder
Head
Precomp
Landing zone
Sector

To be honest, i have no idea what this is so im still stuck.

I tried to boot computer from HDD but in the list of hard drives there is only this:

Bootable Addin Cards

My HDD is SATA 3gbps [that is on the label of my HDD]

The hdd is like 4 years old but before i changed mobo it was working fine so i think it is not dead yet.

What can i do in this situation? I am really frustrated.

 

[Paperdoc]

OK, that info helps, and I took a look at your mobo's manual. It is causing some of your confusion.

First, look again at the diagram about jumpers on your hard drive. It is a SATA II (SATA 3.0 Gb/s), and that's exactly what your mobo is set for. So do NOT set the jumper on the HDD to limit it to SATA 1.5 Gb/s. Leave it set to the default SATA 3.0 Gb/s (probably, NO jumper installed).

Next, here's where your manual and BIOS cause confusion. The mobo has four SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports, and NO IDE ports. And yet, the BIOS screens label them as IDE Channel 0 Master and Slave, and IDE Channel 1 Master and Slave. These are old labels that did not get revised when your BIOS was written. In fact, the port on your mobo labelled SATA2_0 is what your BIOS screens call IDE Channel 0 Master, probably. And so on for the other 3 ports.

Now, in the BIOS, your screen shows you that all four "IDE" ports are set to [None]. In your manual on page 26, it says the options for each port are [Auto], [None] and [Manual]. The [None] setting forces your BIOS to ignore anything connected to that port! That is probably why your BIOS is not detecting your HDD. The [Manual] option is for older HDD's that can't be automatically detected properly and it allows you to set things up yourself if you know how. But you do NOT need to do this. Set the IDE Channel 0 Master unit to [Auto], then plug your HDD's data cable into the SATA2_0 port, and the Bios should detect your HDD properly.

Once that's done, check that the HDD is showing in BIOS. Then go to the
Advanced BIOS Features screen of BIOS, and find the line for First Boot Device. Set that to your HDD. Now look at the bottom of the screen, and choose the F10 option to Save your settings and Exit. The machine will try to boot from your HDD, which is should detect properly.

WAIT! There are still two items you need to work on, maybe. One is, if you have an optical drive attached to another SATA port, you should get that set properly, too. First, in BIOS, make sure the IDE Channel x (etc.) port setting for this is also on [Auto] so the optical drive can be detected and used. Then, time to decide about boot sequence. Many people (me included) set the machine to boot first from the optical drive (just in case I want to boot from a bootable DVD and not the HDD), then go to the HDD as the second choice device. In normal circumstances you would NOT place a bootable disk in the optical drive and the machine will see that quickly, then skip on to the HDD and boot from there.

SECOND item: if you set your machine this way, you'll be trying to boot your machine from a HDD that contains an installed OS with all the drivers for your OLD mobo, and not all the ones it needs for the new one. This is what I mentioned at the end of my June 20 post. If that is what is going on, you MIGHT boot OK, but more likely it will tell you you have problems. In many such cases the machine starts to boot but freezes part way in and never gets going. If that is what happens to you, let us know and we can advise how to fix that.

On the other hand, if you actually planned to completely wipe out your old HDD and start with a new Install of everything, you may not have a big problem. Let us know how this goes and what your next plan is.

 

[bukac999]

Okay, i couldnt change it to auto because when i enter it moves me to another settings which i mentioned already.So i changed extended IDE drive to manual and after starting pc again i heard loud spinning from HDD, however it still can not detect it.