SATA Hard Drives Not Detected in BIOS or Windows 7 Setup

[cabinboy]

Hello,

I've spent the last couple of days trying to build my new computer but I keep running into a huge problem. For the most part the build went off without a hitch except for the fact that BIOS won't detect either my Seagate 1TB 7200 rpm or my WD Caviar 320 GB 5400 rpm HDDs (both from a previous build.)

All other components show up, including my optical drive which is SATA, also. I've tried each of the HDDs (by themselves and together) in every SATA port and have tested them with the cables from the optical drive along with the ports it was using...but still nothing.

Gigabyte tech support went through the exact same steps with me and just told me that there was probably an issue with the hard drives. Figuring they must be right, I bought a new one and put it in. This drive didn't show up, either.

Each of the HDDs seem to spin up when I start the computer so, as far as I know, they are being powered. Also, its worth noting that I did check to see if the SATA controller is enabled in BIOS and it is. The "OnChip SATA Type" option in BIOS is set to "Native IDE", also.

I have absolutely no idea where to go from here. I am just hoping that someone has had the same problem and was able to get it working. Thanks in advance.


mobo: Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 rev 1.1
cpu : AMD Athlon II X3 @3.0 ghz
ram : G.Skill Sniper 8gb (2 x 4)
gpu : Asus ENGTX 460
psu : OCZ Modxstream-Pro 700W
case : Raidmax Smilodon ATX-612WB Black/Silver 1.0mm

 

[leandrodafontoura]

Test the hard drives with a friend computer, then you will now for sure.

Havin tested already 3 HDDs, I sugest your mobo is defective, altough its possible that your hard drives are all defective too.

 

[cabinboy]

Test the hard drives with a friend computer, then you will now for sure.

Havin tested already 3 HDDs, I sugest your mobo is defective, altough its possible that your hard drives are all defective too.

Will do as soon as I can get to one!

Any suggestions for solutions in the mean time? I went ahead and updated BIOS to the latest, non-beta version. Still no dice.

 

[Petrofsky]

Recheck all your BIOS settings. In the normal setup section, you should set IDE detect to auto.

 

[cabinboy]

Recheck all your BIOS settings. In the normal setup section, you should set IDE detect to auto.

I checked and it was. Thanks, though.

 

[pjmelect]

Have you Tried clearing the CMOS memory? You should always do this when fitting a new processor or changing the BIOS. Clear the CMOS the way it describes in the manual, simply removing the battery is often not good enough.

 

[cabinboy]

Have you Tried clearing the CMOS memory? You should always do this when fitting a new processor or changing the BIOS. Clear the CMOS the way it describes in the manual, simply removing the battery is often not good enough.

I've cleared CMOS both by resetting to factory defaults in BIOS and removing the battery.

 

[cabinboy]

Okay, so its been about a week and I still haven't found a solution. During this time I did send for a RMA of the Seagate hard drive I bought and now have one more hard drive with which I've tested the build, but have come across the same results.

One thing that I hadn't noticed before is that none of the hard drives are spinning. I guess I took the CD-ROM drives movement as that of the hard drive. So, I'm pretty sure BIOS isn't recognizing any of them because they aren't getting power (or they are and just not going.) I just don't understand why my 700w PSU wouldn't be sending enough power to just the hard drives while everything else works. Do any of you know what may be up?

Anyway, today my girlfriend is finally back from winter vacation, so I'll be testing all 4 of the hard drives in her machine. Wish me luck!

 

[cabinboy]

Test the hard drives with a friend computer, then you will now for sure.

Havin tested already 3 HDDs, I sugest your mobo is defective, altough its possible that your hard drives are all defective too.

leandrodafont,

I forgot to mention that this is the second brand of motherboard that I've tried my build on with the exact same issue. It was an ASrock Extreme3 that I RMA'd without successfully solving the problem. Thinking it was something up with that specific mobo, I refunded that and bought the Gigabyte board that I have now.

 

[Petrofsky]

I just re-read the thread, and I don't think anybody has asked the stupid question, "Have you connected the power cables to the HDDs in addition to the data cables?"

 

[cabinboy]

I just re-read the thread, and I don't think anybody has asked the stupid question, "Have you connected the power cables to the HDDs in addition to the data cables?"

I guess its mandatory, haha. Of course!

 

[Paperdoc]

Here's an odd thought to check. By any chance, did you adjust the jumper on the pins on the back of your SATA drives?

Unlike IDE units, there are NO settings for Master or Slave on SATA drives. But some people don't understand this, and try to use the jumper on the back of a SATA unit to set it to "Slave" or something. There are some common HDD's on the market where it is possible to set a SATA unit's jumper to disable the unit. It actually puts it into a special mode used in server systems that gives control of the drive power to the disk controller system so that it can spin the drive down when not in use, then spin it back up when needed. By default in this mode, the motor is NOT on, and it will only power up if told to by the controller system. But in most home desktops, that system never tries to activate the motor because it assumes it already is running. So if you set the jumper wrong in a desktop system, the motor never runs and the HDD appears dead.

 

[cabinboy]

Here's an odd thought to check. By any chance, did you adjust the jumper on the pins on the back of your SATA drives?

Unlike IDE units, there are NO settings for Master or Slave on SATA drives. But some people don't understand this, and try to use the jumper on the back of a SATA unit to set it to "Slave" or something. There are some common HDD's on the market where it is possible to set a SATA unit's jumper to disable the unit. It actually puts it into a special mode used in server systems that gives control of the drive power to the disk controller system so that it can spin the drive down when not in use, then spin it back up when needed. By default in this mode, the motor is NOT on, and it will only power up if told to by the controller system. But in most home desktops, that system never tries to activate the motor because it assumes it already is running. So if you set the jumper wrong in a desktop system, the motor never runs and the HDD appears dead.

I've done nothing to the jumpers, as far as I know. Just installed the hard drives exactly how I had with my old computer by hooking it up by SATA and power. Good to know, though.

 

[cabinboy]

So, I'm still getting no luck with this issue. I even RMA'd the power supply to rule yet another component out as a problem and this one works just as well as the other one. I never got a chance to hook these hard drives to another computer for testing simply out of fear that I would mess their computers up, too. But I guess I just have to do it. As soon as I get the gall to do it, I'll report back.

This is driving me nuts!

Also, I've updated the description with the case I'm using. Maybe someone knows of any issues relating to that.