BleepingComputer.com: Newly installed SATA Hard Drive not found by Bios or XP

Hi all!

Ran into an unusual(?) problem today after installing a new Seagate Barracuda 2TB hard drive into my computer.

I currently have 2 hard drives running via the IDE connectors (1: 250gb Seagate drive, 2: 120gb WD drive) . I've had them that way for over a year with no problems. But I ran out of room.

So I stopped by MicroCenter and purchased the new 2TB drive this morning.

The motherboard (ECS NFORCE6M-A) has, in addition to the single IDE connector, a pair of SATA connectors, which I was using to run a pair of DVD burners. So I disconnected the lesser of the burners and installed the new 2TB drive to the SATA connector that was previously used by the now disconnected DVD burner.

When I powered up, I was getting a constant beeping from what I assume is the hard drive, about 5 or 6 seconds apart. I slid the "Seagate Disk Utility" CD into the drive, and once it started up the beeping went away.

However, the utility failed to show the newly installed drive. I opened the Disk Management tool and it did not show up there either. So I went to the BIOS and yet again, the new hard drive was not being recognized. I did double check that the SATA controller was enabled while I was in the BIOS, which it was.

I am running Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 3. Hopefully I have provided all the pertinent information. If not, let me know.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Dan

Did you try the 1.5/3.0 jumper on the drive?

dpunisher, on Mar 15 2010, 07:43 PM, said:

I did not, as the board (supposedly) supports 3.0 Gb/s.

Do you think it's worth a shot though?

yep that jumper is worth a shot, only takes a sec, and a few older boards had firmware bugs that was supposed to support 3.0 but didnt. I happen to own one of those boards

Anyway since I dont know what board you have, is there a place in the bios 'specify' whats attached to a particular controller. For example on some boards you can select CD/DVDROM, Hard Drive etc on a particular controller or set it to 'auto' if its set manullay to CD drive, and you connect a hrd drive to it, it could have a problem, so check that.

The beeping are diagnostic codes. They come from the mainboard not the drive, listen to the codes and the pattern, write this down and check your manual it should show the beep codes in it. If it doesnt look at some generic codes they are usually the all the same.

Also you may have to setup something in your ATA utility (if any) once again I cant say because I dont know what hardware your using.

Good luck

pnjunction, on Mar 15 2010, 08:24 PM, said:

The board is an ECS NFORCE6M-A.

Here is a link:

http://www.ecsusa.com/ECSWebSite/Products/...123&LanID=9


I went through the BIOS and didnt see anything that resembled what you are talking about. It does have an option for IDE HDD Auto-Detection, but nothing of the like for SATA.

The beeping went away once I loaded up the installation disc that came with the Seagate drive. Unfortunately I cannot proceed with the formatting because even Seagates own utility cannot locate the drive. It does find my other 2 drives though.

Thank you.

if the seagate utility cant see the drive then bios controller isnt configured correctly, it the ATA controller is onboard the it would be the boards utility. Some boards like a via board I have have a seperate bios setup for the sata stuff. lemme look at the specs.


edit

sorry I hadnt noticed the MB model in your original post. A couple of stupid things to double check. Make sure you have power connected to the drive, and the data cable is plugged into the board and the drive. Hey, its happened to everyone, so its worth checking. Also, make sure the drive is spinning up. Turn off other stuff if you cant hear it. I'm assumming the 1.5/3.0 jumper didnt help things. those bugs were on just a few older boards anyway. Try switching it out on the other ata port, also try it without the dvd drive connected.

Another thing, when it didnt boot that time. sometimes the bios goes to default values. Make sure they are enabled in the raid config in your bios.

Also I just noticed another thing. You said that you were running to IDE drives and two ata burners, yet you had to unplug one burner to install the ata drive. You manual shows you have 4 ata connectors.

The only other things I can think of are, the disk may be to large for the bios version or disk management software. 2 TB is fairly new for a board thats a few years old.

pnjunction, on Mar 15 2010, 09:36 PM, said:

I just did the 1.5 jumper and no dice

Power and SATA cable are both firmly planted, I triple checked while installing the jumper.

It's getting juice, I can hear it spin up it sounds cool. I wish I could use it lol.

My mb only has 2 SATA connections, the manual shows 4 but then says 2 of them are "optional equipment", which I guess I didnt option for lol.

I've tried booting with RAID disabled and also with RAID enabled. Doesnt seem to make much difference.

Maybe your last guess is correct, and it's just too big of a drive. Would one of those card style adapters solve that problem, or would I then need to get some sort of external docking station via USB connection or ?? Maybe it would still be too big even then? I'd hate to buy a new mainboard because I'm certain my processor is outdated again (dual processor AMD Athlon 64 4000+). I just bought a new graphics card last week and today this hard drive. Pockets are getting slim.

After I put the jumper on I got the beeps again. 1 short beep every 3 seconds for about 1 minute. Then they stopped on their own, again.

havent been stumped like this in quite some time. I really do appreciate all the help.

I hope you all burn in the eternal hellfire. I asked a question here once, and got zero replies. Someone else posted a question twenty minutes later and within ten minutes had SIX replies. I will say a special prayer to Jesus tonight regarding your souls. You horrible slime. May the gods rain a plague down upon this website and all who enter it. I have sent an e-mail to Al Gore concerning this terrible waste of his second greatest achievement, after that classic of cinema "An Inconvenient Truth." With any luck, this website will be shut down within the hour. I hope you all enjoy using your precious website in these, its final moments. You should have heeded braves157's warning. You fools have brought this upon yourselves.

capnredpubes, on Mar 15 2010, 10:58 PM, said:

Maybe your name scared them off?

FWIW: There are many reasons that viewers do not respond to a given post, IMO.

a. They do not feel like it. Just as valid as any other "explanation" that a person could desire, since all responses are voluntary.

b. They didn't understand what was posted. Sometimes posters don't make the most coherent synopses of their situation and do not include info which would help to troubleshoot what is perceived as "the issue."

c. They did not think they had any knowledge/suggestions/advice to contribute.

d. They had more pressing matters calling for personal attention.

e. They thought someone else could handle it better.

And so on...

Louis

Quote

You hijacked someone else's topic and didn't really ask a straight forward question
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ind...p;#entry1675071

My first reaction was to delete your drivel but we'll make sure everyone sees it
Just to make sure you will be ignored in the future

Troll. Banned.

EDIT: Tell Al hey. Prayer won't work. Jesus hates trolls.

Do you guys think switching over to this motherboard will work?

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0307135

Well...I would not buy a motherboard...when I have never established that any computer can see/use the drive.

If I had established that...then I might consider your situation a possible MB problem.

You never indicated (or maybe I didn't notice) just what the BIOS beeps are indicating. Seems to me that was an important clue.

Louis

hamluis, on Mar 18 2010, 11:16 AM, said:

Ya I dont really know what they mean. It's only done it 2 times. Once when I first installed the new HD, and the 2nd time when I swapped the SATA cable to a known good one and installed the 1.5 jumper.

Thank you