My new HDD won't initialize

[Bpowa]

I just purchased a Maxtor 160Gb Sata Drive. I put everything in correctly with both sata cables. But even after it was detected in my BIOS, it is not recognized by Windows. Am I missing something? Help please!

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

right click on my computer, click manage.
Go to the "Storage" portion on the list.
Double click on Disk Management.
In the bottom half of this new shebang, find the drive you put in, right click on it, and click 'format'.

Now I'm assuming that this is your problem. If you've tried this, say so, but this is a difficulty most people run into.

Ryan

 

[sCribes]

yeah, that should be the solution. however, it isnt all that far fetched to have recieved a drive that hasnt already been low level formated from the factory. If this is the case, send it back and get a different one. Low level formating is not something you should do yourself. Most super knowledgable techies wont attempt an initial low level format, tracks, sectors, etc.. leave that up to the manufacturer.

 

[Bpowa]

Thanks for the help guys, but before I got your answers I rebooted and lost detection for my boot drive. After much frustration and tinkering, I got my drive back. Then I had to get detection on the new drive. I have detection on BIOS, but now Windows isn't detecting the drive...

Thanks for any valuable input.

 

[Ste]

yeah, that should be the solution. however, it isnt all that far fetched to have recieved a drive that hasnt already been low level formated from the factory. If this is the case, send it back and get a different one. Low level formating is not something you should do yourself. Most super knowledgable techies wont attempt an initial low level format, tracks, sectors, etc.. leave that up to the manufacturer.

I know where your going with that, low level formats should never be done by anything but manufacture because if we do and its already been formated itll wipe out the sector information. Something like that.

 

[Bpowa]

Ok now that I know that it won't detect at all in Windows, it detects in BIOS but I get no sign of it in Windows. Any advice?
Thanks

 

[desiboi]

Doesn't Windows have that 127GB limit?

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

137 I think, but I really have no idea why windows wouldn't see it and the bios would.

Ryan

 

[vagnozzi]

Is SATA set to combined mode or automatic mode?

Make sure it is set to combined (if applicable) and that SATA0 is the master

 

[Bpowa]

Ok after much tinkering I got bios and windows to recognize it. Thanks for the help.

One more question: I want to run the two maxtor 160s in RAID 0, do both disks have to be clean?