Windows 7 install not recognizing hard drive on brand new rig

[Sasqui]

I don't know if this has been said before, but GSATA ports are rather fussy, in case you're using those.

Google "GSATA Problems" and take a look.

Edit: Also paruse this thread: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169458

 

[Blawkyy]

Have you confirmed that the port works on the motherboard on the new machine? Have you tried moving the optical drive to that port to see if it still works (if you have a SATA optical drive?)

We move the sata plug into every port on the motherboard to try and see if it was a broken port.

 

[TheMailMan78]

You don't need Ubuntu to or any Linux to boot from a CD. Windows 7 will work fine. Just go to advance settings.

 

[Blawkyy]

I don't know if this has been said before, but GSATA ports are rather fussy, in case you're using those.

Google "GSATA Problems" and take a look.

Edit: Also paruse this thread: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169458

I don't think this motherboard has any GSATA ports. If you look at this:

GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB...

This is all it says for the SATA's: 6 x SATA 6Gb/s

And I tried zooming in on the motherboard picture to see if it said anything about GSATA next to the SATA's and it said nothing about it. So I dont think there are any GSATA ports on this mobo.

 

[Blawkyy]

You don't need Ubuntu to or any Linux to boot from a CD. Windows 7 will work fine. Just go to advance settings.

And what do we do from there?

 

[TheMailMan78]

And what do we do from there?

Delete any partions and install windows.

If it doesnt show up in the advance settings then there is a bios issue.

 

[95Viper]

We move the sata plug into every port on the motherboard to try and see if it was a broken port.

Did you try a different SATA cable?
Did you try a different power connector?

Are you sure you have enabled the onboard SATA controller in the bios and set the on-chip type to AHCI? (This setting requires the SB900 drivers from gigabyte at the OS install)

Also, have you tried resetting the CMOS(BIOS) and installing the OS with the default settings of Native IDE? (This should requires no additional drivers at install and can be changed after install to AHCI by completing a couple of changes to Windows 7 OS).
By installing with Native IDE the drive should show up in the Standard CMOS screen in the BIOS.

Is the Windows 7 disk retail or home made? You may want to try another install disk or a usb stick install.

On the back of the hard disk drive, make sure someone did not inadvertently put a jumper on the settings header. If they did remove it.

You may want to put that drive back in a working system and copy a few files to it and see if you can delete them.

 

[Blawkyy]

Delete any partions and install windows.

If it doesnt show up in the advance settings then there is a bios issue.

Well at this point we RMA'd the hard drive and ordered this hard drive instead:

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 ...

We're guessing this should fix the problem but if it doesn't I'll go into advanced settings and do that.

 

[Blawkyy]

Did you try a different SATA cable?
Did you try a different power connector?

Are you sure you have enabled the onboard SATA controller in the bios and set the on-chip type to AHCI? (This setting requires the SB900 drivers from gigabyte at the OS install)

Also, have you tried resetting the CMOS(BIOS) and installing the OS with the default settings of Native IDE? (This should requires no additional drivers at install and can be changed after install to AHCI by completing a couple of changes to Windows 7 OS).
By installing with Native IDE the drive should show up in the Standard CMOS screen in the BIOS.

Is the Windows 7 disk retail or home made? You may want to try another install disk or a usb stick install.

On the back of the disk, make sure someone did not inadvertently put a jumper on the settings header. If they did remove it.

You may want to put that drive back in a working system and copy a few files to it and see if you can delete them.

Everything you just listed we have tried. The Windows 7 disk is retail, I don't think we can get the Windows 7 on a home made disk without buying it again which isn't an option.

But what do you mean about the jumper on the settings header? And yeah I wish when we had the hard drive in my pc we should have tried putting files into it but that didn't seem necessary at the time =/

 

[95Viper]

Everything you just listed we have tried. The Windows 7 disk is retail, I don't think we can get the Windows 7 on a home made disk without buying it again which isn't an option.

There is ways... Google is your friend in this case.

But what do you mean about the jumper on the settings header? And yeah I wish when we had the hard drive in my pc we should have tried putting files into it but that didn't seem necessary at the time =/

Beside the SATA cable connector there is a header with 4 pins, I believe; and there should be no jumper block on them.
Yes, it would have helped to see if the drive was capable of reading and writing.

Well, good luck with the new drive... hope it works out for you.

 

[Aquinus]

Delete any partions and install windows.

If it doesnt show up in the advance settings then there is a bios issue.

Actually it sounds more like a driver issue, rather than a BIOS issue, but I think you're right. Ubuntu was able to install to it, but not boot and Windows can't find it. It really sounds like RAID is enabled without the correct drivers and not AHCI, but it isn't.

Blawkky: In the Windows installer when you load the drivers, have you tried the RAID drivers anyways to see if maybe the BIOS is just finicky, because everything about this looks, feels, and tastes like on board RAID. Also are you using the latest BIOS?

Edit: Actually try installing RAID drivers with AHCI enabled, if that doesn't work, set it to RAID and try the drivers again.

Well at this point we RMA'd the hard drive and ordered this hard drive instead:

I really don't think it is the drive considering it works on other machines.

 

[Blawkyy]

There is ways... Google is your friend in this case.



Beside the SATA cable connector there is a header with 4 pins, I believe; and there should be no jumper block on them.
Yes, it would have helped to see if the drive was capable of reading and writing.

Well, good luck with the new drive... hope it works out for you.

Ohhh, I think I know what you're talking about. On the actual hard drive right next to the SATA plug there is that 4 prong thing? Yeah there was nothing on it I don't think, is there a reference I can look at to know if there was a jumper on it or not?

 

[Blawkyy]

Actually it sounds more like a driver issue, rather than a BIOS issue, but I think you're right. Ubuntu was able to install to it, but not boot and Windows can't find it. It really sounds like RAID is enabled without the correct drivers and not AHCI, but it isn't.

Blawkky: In the Windows installer when you load the drivers, have you tried the RAID drivers anyways to see if maybe the BIOS is just finicky, because everything about this looks, feels, and tastes like on board RAID. Also are you using the latest BIOS?

Edit: Actually try installing RAID drivers with AHCI enabled, if that doesn't work, set it to RAID and try the drivers again.


I really don't think it is the drive considering it works on other machines.

We actually did all of that. The first night we were working on it, after about 5 hours of troubleshooting we decided to just start doing random stuff like you suggested. We tried loading every driver we could find, including all the RAID drivers when the system was on AHCI. Then we switch the BIOS to RAID and did the same exact thing and nothing loaded up.

The BIOS update is what it was at when the motherboard came out of the box. So no, it probably isn't updated. We didn't think that was necessary.

But even though the hard drive worked on my computer, still we think something was wrong with the hard drive. How could it be possible that, 5 months ago when I built my computer and ran my hard drive onto my system that it worked perfectly, but then when we put my computer in the same exact scenario with just a different, but same type of brand new hard drive it doesn't work? That just shows the hard drive being the constant with things not working because his new system could run MY hard drive, just not the new "faulty" one.

 

[Blawkyy]

Just to let everyone know, the new western digital hard drive we ordered came in today. We plugged it all in, booted up Windows 7 and it worked like a charm. So much frustration and troubleshooting all over a faulty hard drive! Ugh! Thank you all who contributed for all your help, I seriously appreciate it. I will definitely come back to this forum for every computer issue I have!