New SATA hard drive not being detected

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Neiberger
  • Start date Start date
J

John Neiberger

First, I know just enough about PC hardware to be hazardous. Please
forgive me if I say or do anything totally newbie-ish.

I just installed a SATA drive (this is a second drive in this machine)
and booted up the PC. When I go to device manager, there is still only
one entry under disk drives. I already have one physical drive
connected to SATA port 0 on my mobo. I found out after the fact that I
plugged the new drive into port 2.

Is there something else I need to do to get the system to see that
drive so I can format it and start using it?

Thanks!
John
 
First, I know just enough about PC hardware to be hazardous. Please
forgive me if I say or do anything totally newbie-ish.

I just installed a SATA drive (this is a second drive in this machine)
and booted up the PC. When I go to device manager, there is still only
one entry under disk drives. I already have one physical drive
connected to SATA port 0 on my mobo. I found out after the fact that I
plugged the new drive into port 2.

Is there something else I need to do to get the system to see that
drive so I can format it and start using it?

Thanks!
John
Click to expand...

Okay, things are actually stranger than I thought. The new drive is
being detected by my PC, but my PC thinks it's a SCSI CDROM and not
the Maxtor hard drive that it actually is.

Any thoughts?
 
Okay, things are actually stranger than I thought. The new drive is
being detected by my PC, but my PC thinks it's a SCSI CDROM and not
the Maxtor hard drive that it actually is.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Nevermind. This appears to be a known problem with some Gigabyte
motherboards. Apparently, they don't recognize SATA devices correctly.
I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done at the moment. I've
updated my BIOS but the drive is still not recognized correctly.
 
First, is the new hard drive detected by the POST (power on test)? This is
the black screen with white characters that you might see immediately after
powering on the PC (or doing a warm boot). It is well below the level of
windows.

If the POST just wizzes by, go into the BIOS setup and disable an option
like "quick boot'. For the moment you want to see as much as possible.
Also, look for a quick message about hitting some key to see details during
the POST.

In any event, does the POST see the new drive? If not, you may need to go
into the BIOS and configure something that sounds like turning on the SATA
controller.

Another possible problem is that the SATA controller may also be a RAID
controller. If so, you might need to create a RAID array containing just
the one disk, or chose an option like JBOD (just a bunch of disks). In my
motherboard manaul the details I needed to configure the RAID controller
where hidden on page 130 or so.

On my ASUS motherboard I had to play with the BIOS and also with the RAID
setup (not in the BIOS, but seen during the power on test, very briefly,
after the memory test). Then, I was able to see the hard drive with the
Seagate Tools (Seatools), partition and format the disk. Until that point,
nothing could see the hard drive, not GHOST floppy, not FDISK, not XP,
nothing.

Now when I boot I see the "Fastrak" RAID controller sensing the drive and
telling me that it is functional.

Of course, XP still could not see the hard drive.

To get XP to see it I had to install a special driver that came with the
motherboard (on CD, but I used the updated version I downloaded from ASUS).
Note: The drive is associated with the disk controller, not with the hard
drive. Since this was to be my boot disk, I had to install XP using the F6
option to load the driver. In your case you should not need to re-install
XP with F6, since XP is already (happily?) installed on another drive.
Instead, you probably need to install the XP drivers, as you would for any
other hardware for which XP has no default drivers. But, first be sure that
the BIOS and POST can see the SATA drive, or XP has no chance.
 
First, is the new hard drive detected by the POST (power on test)? This is
the black screen with white characters that you might see immediately after
powering on the PC (or doing a warm boot). It is well below the level of
windows.

If the POST just wizzes by, go into the BIOS setup and disable an option
like "quick boot'. For the moment you want to see as much as possible.
Also, look for a quick message about hitting some key to see details during
the POST.

In any event, does the POST see the new drive? If not, you may need to go
into the BIOS and configure something that sounds like turning on the SATA
controller.

Another possible problem is that the SATA controller may also be a RAID
controller. If so, you might need to create a RAID array containing just
the one disk, or chose an option like JBOD (just a bunch of disks). In my
motherboard manaul the details I needed to configure the RAID controller
where hidden on page 130 or so.

On my ASUS motherboard I had to play with the BIOS and also with the RAID
setup (not in the BIOS, but seen during the power on test, very briefly,
after the memory test). Then, I was able to see the hard drive with the
Seagate Tools (Seatools), partition and format the disk. Until that point,
nothing could see the hard drive, not GHOST floppy, not FDISK, not XP,
nothing.

Now when I boot I see the "Fastrak" RAID controller sensing the drive and
telling me that it is functional.

Of course, XP still could not see the hard drive.

To get XP to see it I had to install a special driver that came with the
motherboard (on CD, but I used the updated version I downloaded from ASUS).
Note: The drive is associated with the disk controller, not with the hard
drive. Since this was to be my boot disk, I had to install XP using the F6
option to load the driver. In your case you should not need to re-install
XP with F6, since XP is already (happily?) installed on another drive.
Instead, you probably need to install the XP drivers, as you would for any
other hardware for which XP has no default drivers. But, first be sure that
the BIOS and POST can see the SATA drive, or XP has no chance.
Click to expand...

My system sees the drive, it just thinks it's a SCSI CDROM instead of
a hard disk drive. I saw a tech note on Maxtor's website about it and
it just told me to ask Gigabyte tech support if they've got a fix for
it. I already have one SATA drive in this PC. Why would it not detect
the second one? Very weird.
 
John Neiberger said:
Nevermind. This appears to be a known problem with some Gigabyte
motherboards. Apparently, they don't recognize SATA devices correctly.
I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done at the moment. I've
updated my BIOS but the drive is still not recognized correctly.

My system sees the drive, it just thinks it's a SCSI CDROM instead of
a hard disk drive. I saw a tech note on Maxtor's website about it and
it just told me to ask Gigabyte tech support if they've got a fix for
it. I already have one SATA drive in this PC. Why would it not detect
the second one? Very weird.
Click to expand...


John:
As you've indicated, it's a common occurrence that modern motherboards fail
to correctly identify SATA devices as SATA devices and misidentify them as
SCSI devices. And this applies to motherboards of many different makes - not
just Gigabyte. In virtually every instance it's a "non-problem" in that it's
purely a cosmetic misidentification that has no bearing on the performance
of the SATA device. So it can safely be ignored.

It is strange that in your case the SATA HDD has been identified as a "SCSI
CDROM". I'm hard-pressed to think of any similar situation I've come across
with Gigabyte or any other boards in this regard. I assume you're referring
to this misidentification in Device Manager, right? In other words, the SATA
HDD is *not* listed in the "Disk drives" section of DM along with your other
SATA HDD? But it's shown in the "DVD/CD-ROM drives" section of DM as a SCSI
CD-ROM? Is that right?

If you right-click on those two sections of DM and select the "Scan for
hardware changes" option, is there any change?

And the SATA HDD is also shown as a "SCSI CDROM" in Disk Management? But the
assigned drive letter is correct, yes? And all the normal info pertaining to
a HDD, e.g., disk capacity, file system, etc. is reflected in DM for that
HDD? And you've experienced no problems with the drive other than this
misidentification, right? I assume you're using it as a non-bootable
secondary HDD for storage/backup and haven't experienced any problems with
it, right?

You mentioned in your OP that you connected your boot SATA HDD to your
motherboard's SATA0 connector, but you connected the misidentified SATA HDD
to the SATA2 connector? Why didn't you connect it to the SATA1 connector -
or was that a typo?

Have you been in touch with Gigabyte about this?

(Now that I'm re:reading your previous postings I'm beginning to wonder
whether this is a more serious problem than I originally thought, i.e., the
SATA HDD is not being recognized by the system so that you are unable to use
it. Is that the *real* problem, or is the problem as I've indicated above?)
Anna
 
John:
As you've indicated, it's a common occurrence that modern motherboards fail
to correctly identify SATA devices as SATA devices and misidentify them as
SCSI devices. And this applies to motherboards of many different makes - not
just Gigabyte. In virtually every instance it's a "non-problem" in that it's
purely a cosmetic misidentification that has no bearing on the performance
of the SATA device. So it can safely be ignored.

It is strange that in your case the SATA HDD has been identified as a "SCSI
CDROM". I'm hard-pressed to think of any similar situation I've come across
with Gigabyte or any other boards in this regard. I assume you're referring
to this misidentification in Device Manager, right? In other words, the SATA
HDD is *not* listed in the "Disk drives" section of DM along with your other
SATA HDD? But it's shown in the "DVD/CD-ROM drives" section of DM as a SCSI
CD-ROM? Is that right?

If you right-click on those two sections of DM and select the "Scan for
hardware changes" option, is there any change?

And the SATA HDD is also shown as a "SCSI CDROM" in Disk Management? But the
assigned drive letter is correct, yes? And all the normal info pertaining to
a HDD, e.g., disk capacity, file system, etc. is reflected in DM for that
HDD? And you've experienced no problems with the drive other than this
misidentification, right? I assume you're using it as a non-bootable
secondary HDD for storage/backup and haven't experienced any problems with
it, right?

You mentioned in your OP that you connected your boot SATA HDD to your
motherboard's SATA0 connector, but you connected the misidentified SATA HDD
to the SATA2 connector? Why didn't you connect it to the SATA1 connector -
or was that a typo?

Have you been in touch with Gigabyte about this?

(Now that I'm re:reading your previous postings I'm beginning to wonder
whether this is a more serious problem than I originally thought, i.e., the
SATA HDD is not being recognized by the system so that you are unable to use
it. Is that the *real* problem, or is the problem as I've indicated above?)
Anna
Click to expand...

I connected the drive to port 2 because I had no idea what I was doing
and just connected it to the easiest port to reach. :-) Do you think
it would make a difference if I put it in port 1?

The drive letter is correct, but it shows up exactly like my other CD-
ROM: no media and 0 available bytes for storage.

I've contacted Gigabyte about this but I doubt they'll respond over
the weekend. What doesn't make sense is that my primary drive is SATA.
Why would the board have a problem recognizing another SATA drive? It
makes no sense to me.

Thanks!
 
I connected the drive to port 2 because I had no idea what I was doing
and just connected it to the easiest port to reach. :-) Do you think
it would make a difference if I put it in port 1?

The drive letter is correct, but it shows up exactly like my other CD-
ROM: no media and 0 available bytes for storage.

I've contacted Gigabyte about this but I doubt they'll respond over
the weekend. What doesn't make sense is that my primary drive is SATA.
Why would the board have a problem recognizing another SATA drive? It
makes no sense to me.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Okay, now I'm even more confused. I had assumed that my current drive
was SATA because it is connected with a SATA cable. However, SiSoft
Sandra is reporting it as an ATA drive. I've also been doing some more
research and it looks like I might need to install a SATA host
adapter, but I don't know where to find such a thing. It's not on the
CD that came with my Gigabyte motherboard.

It appears to me that my PC just doesn't know what to do with SATA
devices. I had assumed that my other drive was SATA, but that doesn't
appear to be the case now.
 
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