Motherboard not recognising my HD

[Sunrider]

Greetings to all, hope someone can help.

Tech Spec:

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM
Intel E4400 Socket 775 2x2.00GHz 800MHz FSB 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
EVGA 8800GTS SuperClocked 320MB DDR3 DVI PCI-E Graphics Card
Seasonic S12 II 500W PSU - 12cm Fan 80Plus Efficiency
OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 CL 4-4-4-15 PLATINUM XTC

I built this PC last year but due to a HD failure I replaced the HD with a new one listed (in bold).

Unfortunately the motherboard seems unable to recognise the HD and of course I can't load up the OS. Power is connected as the HD spins up and I've tried different SATA cables so it's not that. I've tried different settings in the BIOS but nothing seems to make any difference.

Any help much appreciated.

 

[Lexluethar]

Just so i understand your situation better, does the new hard drive already have an OS? Are you trying to install the OS on it right now?

Usually if this is a new hard drive and you already have a running system, when you add the new drive you will have to go into disk management and format/partition the drive. If you still can't see it in windows you may have to use a 3rd party tool to format the drive.

If this is a brand new drive and no other drives have an OS on them, you'll need a boot disk (XP, Linux, Vista) to format the drive and partition in prior to installing the OS.

If you've tried either one of these (whichever fits you) and you can't even see the drive in the bios screen, look at having a bad hard drive, SATA controller, or SATA cable.

Give us a little more detail about your setup and what you are trying to do.

 

[Sunrider]

OK, bit more info.

I'm installing a replacement HD for the one that failed, which means no OS so in effect it'll be a completely new install for everything.

I can't install the OS and go throught the partitioning/formatting process as the hard drive doesn't seem to be recognised in the BIOS. If I try to load the OS from the boot disk I get a message stating there is no HD connected.

I've changed the SATA cable so it's not that. The HD is brand new, so although possible I'd have thought it unlikely to be faulty.

 

[Lexluethar]

Easiest way to find out is borrow a SATA drive if you can to see if the system recognizes it. Once you put on the other drive you can check in the bios to see if it is seeing the drive. If it does then RMA the drive you have for a replacement, if it doesn't then we'll look elsewhere for possible causes.

 

[KSoD]

If you are trying to install Windows XP onto the SATA drive that is why. Windows XP does not have any SATA Drivers on the installer CD. You will need to get the SATA Drivers from the manufacturer's site and put them on a USB Thumb drive. From there use the F6 to isntall 3rd party drivers during setup to get the drive recognized by the setup.

 

[Lexluethar]

If you are trying to install Windows XP onto the SATA drive that is why. Windows XP does not have any SATA Drivers on the installer CD. You will need to get the SATA Drivers from the manufacturer's site and put them on a USB Thumb drive. From there use the F6 to isntall 3rd party drivers during setup to get the drive recognized by the setup.

Duh, that would definately be the issue. I honestly didn't even think about that.

Although the bios should still recognize the drive.

 

[veedubfreak]

You can also set the sata to work as legacy/eide instead of "native sata mode". I am having to image a bunch of laptops here at work and kept getting BSODs and couldnt for the life of me figure out what was wrong. Popped in the windows cd and it said it couldnt find the hard drive. Then i remembered i had to disable the native sata mode.

 

[KSoD]

That will work as well. In some setups it is also known as ACHI. But some people say that you lose some speed from the SATA Drives when you disable ACHI. I have done it myself and i can honestly say i dont see a difference. But some say you do.

If you disable ACHI and then install and go to enable ACHI after you have Windows installed you will encounter a error. There is a fix for it somewhere. I just have to find it.

 

[Sunrider]

Thanks for the replies. After some testing last night it appear the new hard drive is faulty.