(2) Full size hard drives not detected by BIOS on (2) separate machines

[UCanCallMeDanny]

Hello,

I recently built myself a new computer over the summer and my old one (also custom built) was put into a closet for a few months. Recently my father in law had a need for a computer so I decided to refurbish my old one and give it to him. I installed a 120gb SSD and a new 3tb SATA HDD in my old computer and all is well.

I decided to take the old 500gb SATA HDD and install it on my new machine. My new machine had a 240gbSSD, 500gb SATA laptop HDD, 320gb SATA laptop HDD, (2) SATA optical drives, and a 3tb SATA HDD (less than 6 months old). This machine was working superbly without any issues until I installed my old 500gb HDD into it. All of the optical drives, laptop drives and the SSD work without fault, but the two full size HDD are not recognized by my BIOS anymore. I have tested various SATA ports, cables, and power connections; none of which work.

I tried various BIOS configurations as well as defaults and having one of the two drives be to sole connection (using the known to be working SATA power and cable/port from my optical drive), all to no avail. I have not used any jumpers on the drives.

I have tried to same methods in my old computer (to be given to my father in law) and the two drives in question are not recognized by the bios there as well. The strange thing is that the new 3tb SATA HDD works and is fully detected (in both builds none the less), but neither of my old drives works. The working drive is a Seagate and the non responsive ones are Wester Digital, though one of my working laptop drives is also a WD.

Any help? I realize that (1) HDD may be bad (the old 500gb) but both at the same exact time is hardly a coincidence especially with one being only a few months old.

Thanks,

Danny

 

[fzabkar]

Do the bad drives spin up?

If not, then I would examine the PCBs. In particular I would check the following components with a multimeter.

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/bigcircuitboard_diodes.jpg

If either diode is shorted, then this would point to an overvoltage from your PSU. Overvoltages sometimes occur in new builds, especially when people reuse modular cables from their older PSUs. The pinouts for these cables are non-standard.

 

[UCanCallMeDanny]

The bad drives do not spin up but I have noticed the PCB heating up. Unfortunately I do not have a multimeter to test the voltages.

The SATA power connector for the 3tb drive that was existing and went bad was not changed when the other drive was installed.

 

[fzabkar]

I have noticed that overvoltages often occur in heavily loaded systems. If all your drives are spinning up at the same time, then this creates a very large load on the +12V rail. AIUI, this may result in overshoot on either the 12V supply or the 5V. When this happens, the corresponding TVS diode goes short circuit. Unfortunately WD's designs are flawed and the usual result is a burnt motor controller IC (eg SMOOTH). HDDs from other manufacturers (eg Seagate, Samsung) generally survive overvoltages, at least to the point where a simple DIY fix is possible.

http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30110&start=40