Case of the Missing Hard Drives

[digital_ninja2k]

I'm running a custom built rig with a pair of SATA Hdds. Everything was going good until yesterday when I installed the second drive (SAMSUNG Spinpoint 1TB). Now neither of the drives are appearing on the system.

Any advice on how I can fix this and get my hard drives back?

 

[digital_ninja2k]

Oh, I'm using an Asus K8V-X Motherboard, if that helps.

 

[H4x3r]

do they show up in disk management? right click the my computer icon and select "manage" and see if they show up there first

 

[digital_ninja2k]

No, they do not show up in disc management. All that is there is my C drive (an IDE drive) and a removable USB drive.

 

[H4x3r]

okay, try switching SATA ports if you have any spares, and make sure that they are showing up in the BIOS, if not make sure that everything is plugged in and such. If it still doesnt work, try plugging them up one at a time to make sure there isnt some kind of conflict with each other

 

[digital_ninja2k]

Sorry for the long wait for a reply. My new position at work makes it very difficult to work an my computer during the week. However I was able to open her up this morning.

I tried switching the ports around, there are only two on the motherboard and I can't see either of them in the bios.

See, some time ago (year maybe) my wife, following my instructions, installed an automatic windows security update. Seemed harmless enough at the time. However, when she restarted the computer the system didn't find the hard drive. The only thing I can summerize is that somehow the update erased the SATA driver.

I had a spare IDE drive laying around the house so I was able to fix the problem by simply installing it and reinstalling windows, using the 3rd-party raid disc windows asked for. At least the computer will still work regardless of if it can see these drives. However, I get the feeling something similar has happened this time because whenever I start my computer I get the following message.

"VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT8237 Serial ATA RAID BIOS utility v2.01 Copyright (c) VIA Technologies Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Scan Devices, Please Wait...
Press <TAB> key into user window.

Hardware Initiate Failed, Please check device!!!
The BIOS does not be installed. Press <g> to continue."

Now I know the first part is just legal mumbo-jumbo, but the rest, I know enough to know, means that there is a problem and it looks to be with the bios. Problem is, I've no idea how to fix it. Any suggestions and a well written tutorial would be greatly appreciated.

 

[carnageX]

Can try updating the BIOS.

 

[Hefemeister]

Your board it trying to boot a non existent raid array.

Go into bios advanced menu.
On chip stat boot rom
Set to disable.

 

[digital_ninja2k]

I know this makes me sound dumb, how do I get into the BIOS advanced menu?

 

[Hefemeister]

when you first start the computer press the Delete button during post.

basically when you start the computer start tapping the delete button and you will enter the bios utility. You can navigate to the advanced page and make the changes from there.