Hard Drive is defective?

[TheOtis]

If you've tried every SATA port on your motherboard, you know your PSU is providing the correct voltages, the HDD's don't show up in your BIOS, and you've tried two different hard drives that are different brands from different stores, and still nothing's worked, I think it's safe to say chances are it's a problem with your motherboard. Guess you'll see when you get a new mobo!

 

[baih777]

did you already change the sata cable ??

 

[gaming dan]

hey guys, new mobo is in and.... still problems. I did notice though on the voltages 3.3, 5 and 12 they read as: 3.31, 5.51 and then 11.97??? does that mean that its not supplying enough power for it to work?

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Actually, that is with in the normal operation. Something is up, and it's not motherboard, that's for sure. Try all the basics once again.

Reset BIOS.
If your CD Drive shows up in the BIOS, take the HDD and put it on the same power and data cable as the CD Drive was, if it does not show up in the BIOS setup, then the drive is most likely DOA. It won't show up in windows until you format the drive via disk management. (I pray you checked to make sure where the drives are, and are not showing up at.) Also, make sure your board isn't for some reason combining multiple channels into one.

 

[gaming dan]

ive already done all this, ive tried every possible combination of cables/power there is to try. And also DOA? Its the second one ive bought... Oh and on the voltages it fluctuates between 11.97 and 11.91.... thanks

 

[gaming dan]

man, very weird scenario has just occured. I was unable to boot into windows using the drive i had just recently purchased. I just pulled out an old IDE DVD drive and plugged it all in. It lets me boot into my Windows 7 disc which i was unable to do before! Whats more is that i have 2 lights on the front of the case, 1 for power and the other for HDD. The HDD light until now was not even turning on. Now i have this old DVD drive installed though the HDD light on my case is solid red! Hmm im getting somewhere now, i just need to see if i can find another HDD.

 

[gaming dan]

Right guys i think i give up on this. I dont know what to do. Ive just received a 3rd harddrive and it still wont work. So its not the HDD or the motherboard. Im pretty sure its not the PSU either. Why cant it just work..... ffs

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Just out of pure curosity, are you 100% sure the sata cables are working? If not, then there must be something wrong in the BIOS or something, or something isn't set right somewhere else :-\

Also, make sure the motherboard is properly grounded, and not grounded out in the wrong places to the case.

 

[gaming dan]

Right, ive tried about 5 different SATA data cables that all work with my optical drive. It has an American Megatrends BIOS. I have it set to IDE mode. The drive wont even fire up.... i cant have gotten 3 dodgy drives seriously :S if i had set the system panel connector pins wrong would that have an effect on it? This is starting to get ridiculous now. Also is a voltage of 11.91 - 11.97 on the 12v rail enough to be powering this? I just checked the voltage on another computer in my house and that one runs at 11.7 and it works fine. Oh and could it be that drivers need to be installed on the windows installation?

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Well, according to you, the drives aren't showing up in the bios, but you are able to install, have you checked to see if they are showing up in disk management? I am sure I mentioned earlier, you wont see the drives under my computer untill they are all formated, as they are raw....