New Computer: Hard Drive Issues?

[BreathlessOblivion]

My old computer was crashing on me about a month ago, so I started ordering in parts to do my first fresh build. I kind of thought it was a hard drive issue (which it didn't turn out to be) so I ordered that first, put Windows 7 on it, and used it in that failing computer for some time.

Anyways, I have all my parts now (see below) and built the machine tonight. Everything checks out fine in BIOS. It sees my full 6GB of RAM, SATA Hard Drive, SATA CD-Rom, CPU and all running at default frequencies and acceptable temperatures. I'll list my parts before continuing further.

-ASUS P6X58D Premium Motherboard
-Intel Core i7 930 2.8GHz CPU
-6GB Mushkin Blackline 1600MHz 7-9-7-24 Memory
-Western Digital 1TB SATA III Caviar Black HDD
-Antec TruePower 1000W PSU
-BFG 8800GT 512Mb Gfx Card (pulled from my old machine)

and if they matter...

-Antec Nine Hundred Case
-ASUS CD-Rom (not sure the model. OEM)

My problem was in my first setup, because this board supports true SATA III, I decided to hook up my (alleged) SATA III hard drive that way. I would try and boot off it but it would freeze at the Windows 7 startup logo, restart, and try booting again until I stopped it. When I went into BIOS it wouldn't recognize the hard drive, which I thought was strange since it knew to boot off of it. So I switched the cables and switched it to a SATA II port, and now it recognizes the drive in BIOS, but doesn't see it when I attempt to boot from it. I get the messages "No Hard Drive Disk Detected" and "BOOTMGR Not Found". I decided to (grudgingly) reformat the drive and it took a painfully long time to do so (at least it seemed, compared to when I installed it when it was new). After reinstalling Windows 7 it still says it can't find the Hard Drive Disk upon boot, but now it boots from it. It seems responsive, but I'm unsure about how stable it will be and for how long due to the circumstances.

I'm hesitant to say it's a motherboard issue for the reason that it sees everything properly, temperatures are all normal even with completely stock parts across the board. I'm also hesitant to say it's the hard drive, since it was working perfectly in my old, failing machine. I'm fairly positive I hooked everything up correctly, even though this is my first complete fresh build. I've done almost every thing I did today on old machines, but all on separate occasions. Never all at once.

Does anyone have any ideas???

 

[Motopsychojdn]

First thing I'd say, go to this link,
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/288241-13-read-posting-buyer-guides-troubleshooting
and work through it, may seem harsh, but you'll thank me later in life,
come back and let us know how you get on after breadboarding it
Moto

 

[BreathlessOblivion]

I'll give it a shot if you don't have any other ideas, but I did most of that while constructing it. I was taught it as a good habit when installing new components into a computer anyways. I didn't do it all exactly (never tested the RAM for shorting out the PSU) but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to be thorough.

 

[BreathlessOblivion]

First thing I'd say, go to this link,
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/288241-13-read-posting-buyer-guides-troubleshooting
and work through it, may seem harsh, but you'll thank me later in life,
come back and let us know how you get on after breadboarding it
Moto

I'm running it now with nothing hooked up to my motherboard but my CPU and it's not giving me any beeps at all. Everything seems to be running fine, but no beeps. I'm assuming I have the speaker connected properly because when I had everything else set and I had forgot to put the PCI-E power to my video card it gave me some angry messages, but nothing now.

Thoughts?

 

[BreathlessOblivion]

It appears to me after browsing through the comments on that troubleshooting page that the Antec Nine Hundred cases dont have case speakers.

What now? Haha

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Sorry man, was on other studies
i'd say get yourself a case speaker, I think most electronic/ pc shops should get you one for a couple of dollars,
but the beeps (if any are sounding) will give you good info on what the issue is
http://store.cwc-group.com/casp.html
is what your looking for though
Moto

 

[BreathlessOblivion]

Well, I'll try and pick one up as soon as possible. To any other would-be problem solvers reading, I'll give this last message before I head off for the night.

Everything is working fine. Everything is responsible, good temps, all perfect. Before loading Windows, it continues to say, "No Hard Disk Detected", then proceeds to boot Windows off the undetected hard disk. Questionable, at best.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Quick brainflash, download memtest, I just remember my Gf's did a similar thing, replaced her bad stick and its fine now, might be same for you, totally skipped over my head lol
Moto

 

[BreathlessOblivion]

Managed to catch your post before I went to bed and I ran four copies of memtest all night. They all found no errors.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Ok man, it was just a quick idea as I said sorry it didnt point anything out, but at least your rams good hehe
back to case speaker option then
Moto

 

[BreathlessOblivion]

Still haven't had a chance to pick up a case speaker, but coming home after work today I did decide to play with a few settings and got some changes.

I originally had my SATA drive plugged into my SATA III port on my mobo, and when I couldn't see it in BIOS I decided to move it to the SATA II port to see if it would make any changes. I could then see it in my BIOS but it wouldn't boot, resulting my re-installation of Windows, leading me to where I am now.

Anyways, with the new Windows I decided to move the drive back to the SATA III port, and lo-and-behold, it detects the disk upon boot!! Two issues.

-It detects it as a SATA II drive even though it's plugged into a true SATA III port, and the hard drive is allegedly a SATA III drive.
-I can no longer see it under my SATA list in BIOS.

When it boots it recognizes it as an IDE drive, not a SATA drive, and it sees it the same way in my boot priority list in BIOS. There is a setting turned on that makes it read my SATA storage drives as IDE (I believe it's SATA Enhanced Mode, for running newer operating systems or something like that. I believe I tried to turn it off because I thought my drives should run as SATA, not IDE, and I could be wrong in that, but when I disabled it, it would no longer read my hard drives at all).

I'm wondering if this breaks any ground on my issue. Is it not detecting it on my SATA list because it's reading as an IDE drive because of that feature being enabled? Is this all working as normal, or am I having a problem?

Thanks a lot for the help so far Moto, and thanks if anyone else chimes in after this post.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Im not familiar with your sata enhanced mode,but it sounds like (in the olden days) setting a drive to slave then telling the bios to boot from that first, confused it a bit
Main thing though, its working ok now?
if it is, I'd say be happy hehe
Moto

 

[BreathlessOblivion]

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