Sata 2 Hard Drive Not Recognised, Please Help!

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Problem solved, emailed tech support and was given permission to open the case to check the SATA leads, the data lead was unplugged... Apparently i got the last of the batch with SATA leads that arent clip on. The next batch all have clip on leads so it seems this is a common issue. But its all fixed now. Just need to install my GFX drivers which are at home and i can run a test. The windows performance thing rates me at a 1.... A 1.... because i havent installed my GFX drivers though. Not all bad!

Right so my new machine arrived today and comes with a 1.5TB SATA 2 drive pre-installed. all i had to do was plug in the power etc...I assumed vista came pre-installed but when i was met with a "No OS" type message i realized id have to install, whacked the DVD in loaded up and got to the "Select installation drive" part, only vista couldnt see any drives and suggested i look for drivers, so i tried the automatic option and it found none, browsed to the DVD drive, found none. Looked through my stuff and found an Intel DVD which said "support" and "drivers" no luck..it only contains LAN, video and audio drivers.

Looked online for drivers for the mobo but found none. the BIOS doesnt seem to have detected any HDD (it has a stupid BIOS logo screen but when entering the BIOS you get a brief flash of the "real" BIOS screen showing POST data and using the pause key there is still no HDD found during POST, just a DVD drive) Im not a pro with SATA drives, im good with computers, i work with them, but never used a SATA machine before but the only settings ive found relate to compatibility mode for older OS's like win98, tried that anyway and no luck with that. Tried fail safe BIOS settings and Optimized settings, nothing.

Tried an Ubuntu live disk, cant see any HDD either. I cant open the machine up as it has warranty seals on the case so there might not even be a hard drive in the machine at all.

ITs doing my head in. Please if anyone has any triicks to try to see if the HDD is actually present please let me know!!!

Im going to take it into work tomorrow, like i say i work in ICT so ill see if i can get the head guy to take a look, (im new so meh) and if not im going to ring tech support and get them to talk me through the process. this is ridic so please if anyone knows anything share it!

EDIT: I looked further on the disk supplied and found some intel drivers (im faiurly sure the SATA controller chipset is intel) loaded them in the dialogue box and tried selecting the drivers, i can only try one at a time so i tried the two SATA controller drivers (one was IDE i think and the other ID2 or something) no luck, Vista still says there are no HDDs in there, tried some others that related to IDE and "Storage" but no luck. Nothing. Its like someone forgot to put it in!

Please if anyone can point me in the direction of a download for the ICH7 intel chipset drivers please please please post a link!!!

 

 

 

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Sata Drives are just like IDE drives with only the cable difference

Anyways .. I'll suggest trying two things :

1. Remove the Sata cable connecting your Motherboard and HDD and replace this with another Spare cable if possible . Just to make sure that the cable is not faulty. If you can't find another Sata cable just remove it and then plug it again. During shipping cables tend to get loose. This is very common. Also Try to plug it in the 1st SATA port on the motherboard. They are either color coded or Marked on the board. It doesn't generally matter where you plug it in but I think BIOS reads the ports in order.

2. Remove all other drives' connection from your motherboard except for the HDD and then boot. If it detects I think there could be a conflict of Master Slave jumper configuration.


You didn't specify any specifications of your configuration or make of your machine so can't help you much with the drivers. BUT I don't think new machines need any drivers for SATA or other ports that are there on the Motherboard. If its there on the motherboard, bios can easily read it.

 

 

 

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All sorted, see the first post for an explanation Bloody SATA leads!

Am i to assume that as they are a newer specification (compared with IDE) that universal compatibility isnt around yet? (Ive never heard of or had problems installing to an IDE driver so Im assuming SATA just isnt standardized yet?)

I would try what you suggested but the case has warranty seals on it, and if the hardware is faulty i cant send it back with broken warranty seals or they will just blame me and send it back to me still broken

I emailed tech support and they are gonig to ask the manufacturer to call me, they said the cables may have come loose.. Marvelous....



That's whats worrying me, i can accept that windows or linux might not have up to date drivers, fair enough, but if the *BIOS* isnt detecting the drive then it just screams of a hardware problem to me. Hopefully tech support will "talk me through" the process of checking the connections inside and ship me some shiny new warranty seals or something but i wont be happy if he tells me i need to get it shipped to them so they can check it... thatll be a week of wasted time... I'm more than capable of checking a few connections and jumpers (provided im given the corect jumper configuration anyway )

Cheers for the advice though, im not 100% on the system specs as without opening it i cant see serial numbers etc... but i know it runs on an asrock G31M-GS mobo (though actually, that could just be the BIOS...) the southbridge is Intel ICH7 chipset (and this is where the SATA controllers should be methinks....But i tried the ICH7 chipset drivers with no luck) and there is also an Intel G31 Express chipset in there somewhere. Its a quad core system: "Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core"

this is the link for the system on the sellers website, they arent the manufacturers though.

I dont expect you to devote your time to this by the way Im grateful for what you've suggested, and ifit wasnt for the bloody warranty id try that and we have a few SATA drivers sitting around so id try a new drive too to see if its the drive the bus or the lead but meh, cant do that.... Better not mention that i used a linux live CD either or the phone will probably just go dead... Microsoft fanboys!

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