Help HDD isn't recognized

Have you plugged in the power cable for the HDD? What is the model number?

yes.... the hdd model number is WD5000AAKXSP

Are you sure?

There seem to be jumpers on that drive. It looks like you want no pins jumpered. You are of course aware that the two mobo SATA connectors nearest the memory slots are SATA 3, and the other four are SATA 2. Your model number is not recognized by the stupid idiots at WD, so I can't tell what it is exactly, but I think it's a 2.

My hard drive is recognized in the Bios..... So i assume its a problem with windows 7..... any thoughts

the gigabyte manual says that the sata 3 will downgrade if its needed so i don't think thats the problem. I also have tried connecting the HDD in other sata ports and that didn't work, so im thinking its Windows 7.

I assumed you meant that the HDD doesn't appear in the BIOS list, and you wanted to install 7 on it (from a CD). You mean it doesn't appear as an option in the Windows installer?

Sorry.... yes.... it doesn't appear in the windows installer. I haven't got a clue to why this is.

just to add.... i have two installation of Windows 7 (64 and 32) and they both don't show the HDD.

Could you post a pic of your bios showing the hdd settings/info

Just in case I still don't understand, if you are in Windows and you can't see the drive, try going to Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Storage>Disc Management and see if it's there. Right-click next to it and make it a "new simple volume", I think it is.

This is what i did..... I took a laptop hdd and placed it into my desktop. I booted my desktop with the laptop hdd. I then placed the WD HDD ( the one that i've been having trouble with) as a second hard drive. I noticed that windows recognized the WD HDD and could write to it. I also reformatted the WD HDD. I then tried to run the windows installation from my laptop hdd so i could install it on my WD HDD and once again it didn't recognize it. I thought maybe i could clone my laptop HDD to my WD HDD and Acronis "clone software" couldn't recognize the WD HDD as well. This is frustrating...... Why can i write to the WD HDD but cant install the OS.

How did a Windows installation disc come to be on a laptop hard drive?