Asus P8Z77 not recognizing hard drive

[justinmcarlin]

I've purchased and assembled all of the parts for a new desktp PC. I'm using an Asus P8Z77-V LK motherboard and a WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s HDD. When I boot up the machine and go into the BIOS menu, the HDD is most often not recognized. Every once in awhile the HDD is recognized, but it has no free space on it. I'm attempting to install the OS (Windows 7 x64) but can't get past the setup.

I currently have the HDD connected to the 6.0 Gb/s port on the mobo. I've tried both 6Gb/s ports but get the same result both times. Do you think this is a HDD problem or a motherboard problem?

 

[alexoiu]

It might be a SATA cable issue. Have you tried a 3GB/s SATA port?

 

[justinmcarlin]

It might be a SATA cable issue. Have you tried a 3GB/s SATA port?

Yes, I've tried that too. I've also tried it with both of the SATA cables that came with the motherboard. Do you think I should try buying a new cable?

 

[alexoiu]

No. Is the HDD a new one? Have you tried setting SATA to IDE in BIOS? Is the HDD "seen " in BIOS?

 

[justinmcarlin]

No. Is the HDD a new one? Have you tried setting SATA to IDE in BIOS? Is the HDD "seen " in BIOS?

Yep, I've tried switching between AHCI and IDE, but to no avail. A few time in my messing around, I've had the HDD seen in the BIOS, but it showed 0 GB of free space. That has happened maybe 4 times and I haven't been able to determine what causes it to be seen by the BIOS those few times and not seen most of the time.

 

[alexoiu]

Then It might be a HDD issue. Can you test a different one?

 

[justinmcarlin]

Then It might be a HDD issue. Can you test a different one?

I've submitted an advanced RMA from WD and I received the new drive yesterday. I haven't done as extensive testing on the new unit as I had on the first HDD, but so far it isn't being recognized by the motherboard either. I've only tried 2 or 3 times, but it isn't being recognized. Does the drive need to be installed in the drive bay to work? I didn't know if that would be used for grounding purposes.

 

[alexoiu]

No. It should work even if not installed in the drive bay. The new drive, since it's not initialized, is not seen by the board but Windos install should see it.

 

[justinmcarlin]

No. It should work even if not installed in the drive bay. The new drive, since it's not initialized, is not seen by the board but Windos install should see it.

So new drives won't show up in the BIOS menu? The first drive was new too but it didn't appear in the Windows OS installation setup. I ordered all of the parts from NewEgg and assembled them.

 

[alexoiu]

Not until they're initialized. Does Windows install see the new drive?

 

[justinmcarlin]

Not until they're initialized. Does Windows install see the new drive?

As of last night, no. Again, I've only tried once or twice with the new one, but I feel like I shouldn't have to try multiple times in the first place.

On a separate yet related note, I had contacted WD support about this too and they just suggested running "WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics" to test the drive for errors. The only issue is that to run this tool, you either run it from a floppy drive or from the OS (of course, no use to me).

 

[alexoiu]

I suggest then buying a SATA cable, connect the HDD to one of the SATA II ports and see if it is seen by Windows.
If not, then if you have another PC, connect the HDD and try initializing it using Disk management.
In the end, it might be a SATA controller issue.

 

[Motzy]

hello Justinmcarlin

Sorry to activate this thread again.
I am also facing the exact same issue. Did you get any solution for this ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[raja@asus]

Update UEFI to the latest version on the ASUS website. Use the .CAP converter if you need to as well. See if that fixes the problem (assuming it is not something else).

-Raja

 

[Motzy]

I did update UEFI and still the same Issue. USB is getting identified but the WD Black caviar aint being identified. Any solution to that ?

 

[raja@asus]

Go into Windows, and go into Manage My Computer, see if the drive is listed in the drive management snap in and if you can format and initialize it in there.

 

[mechengineer]

hey just had the same issue with my system which is running the asus p8z77 -v deluxe mobo. if you go to the start tab and type in disk management and select it and it should show you all hard drives connected to your system. The hard drive is not showing up because it has not been allocated into the system. In disk management it will show up down the bottom as an unavailable disk, right click it and you should see an option to format it or allocate it or something along those lines, its the first option in that menu. It will take you through a setup wizard so just follow the prompts and it will be allocated into the system. Happy days hope this helps.