Secondary HDD and DVD+-RW not recognized

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Hockey390

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A friend of mine purchased a computer through dell, and it's running Windows Vista Home Ed.

I installed a SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB HDD, as well as an older DVD-RW Drive from his previous computer. The HDD install was very straight forward, it is wired into the SATA 2 port. The computer won't recognize it. What do I need to do to get this up and running?

Next was the install of the DVD drive. This was an "older" one, so it's connection was the larger 16 pin connection and 4 pin power. The MOB only has SATA connections, so I directed him to a converter on eBay that plugs right into the back, and converts to SATA. I set this up, and it appears to be getting power (green LED on converter), but of course the computer is still not recognizing it.

Any advice on this one? I'm not familiar with Vista fortunately.
 
I don't know if Dell did this or got rid of it, but I know older computers (Compaq) used to digitally sign their hardware so that if it is not bough from Compaq, then you can't use it. A very lame marketing scheme.

Also, SATA cables are very very fragile and un-shielded so make sure the SATA cables aren't bent or near each other.
 
check to make sure they are reconized in the bios
see if you have to enable the ports as i've shut down certain ones i don't use

if they are reconized, then windows might not be assigning a drive letter, and you need to find the disk management program it has and manually assign a letter.

there could be digital signing
 
In the BIOS it only shows the master HD, and the initial DVD drive. For SATA 2 and SATA 3 it says "None". All 4 of the SATA's are inactive.. So I can't highlight them. How do I enable the drives?
 
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