2nd Laptop Hard drive not seen in Bios

[Bouncing]

Hello I installed a 2nd hard drive in a Gateway NV7915u laptop from manufactured in April 2010. It came with windows 7. I am now using windows 8.1. The laptop came with 2 SATA hard drive slots. In the bios there are 2 settings in SATA mode AHCI or IDE. AHCI is the default. In AHCI it shows one hard drive in slot 0, slot 1 empty and cd-rom in slot 2. If I set it for IDE the 2nd drive shows in slot 1 but windows will not load. It gives me a blue screen with frown and keeps rebooting. It boots fine in AHCI but only one drive is seen.

The drive does not show up in disk management or device manager in windows. I don't think this is a physical problem as the drive shows when in bios IDE mode and there is no clicking or weird sounds. Bios is SATA bios Version: Intel V1946. I updated the bios to the newest version 1.08. I appreciate any help.

Thanks

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Bouncing,

You have updated your SATA drivers right?
If the issue persists, I guess you will need to test the drive with some brand specific testing tool. You can attach it externally after the system boots up. Trying the drive on another system may be a good idea as well.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[Bouncing]

Thanks d-know. The 2nd hard drive works when installed in a different computer. I updated the drivers for the sata and the bios. Both drives are seen in the bios when the Sata setting is ide but only one drive is seen when in ahci. I would be fine using the ide to get boh drives to work except when i do windows trys to load but cant.

 

[D_Know_WD]

After it is not a HDD issue(as it gets recognized just fine on another system) and all your MOBO drivers are up to date, then it may be a good idea to contact the laptop's manufacturer Support.
Re installing your OS when both HDDs are set to IDE might work.

D_Know_WD

 

[fzabkar]

FWIW, Intel's HM55 chipset has several known problems.

SATA port sequence shift on different SATA modes:
https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Known_issues#SATA_port_sequence_shift_on_different_SATA_modes

SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) devices may not be detected on Intel 5 series and mobile 5 series southbridge:
https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Known_issues#SATA_3.0_.286Gb.2Fs.29_devices_may_not_be_detected_on_Intel_5_series_and_mobile_5_series_southbridge

 

[Bouncing]

Do you think given his chipsets problems there is anyway the laptop can use 2 hard drives? It came with a 2nd drive slot its a shame not to be able to use it.

 

[fzabkar]

I'm just pointing out potential problems that you need to be aware of. I don't have an explanation for your observed problems.

 

[Bouncing]

Thanks for the info. It turns out gateway, hp and others hide the advanced bios settings page. That may have what I need.

 

[Bouncing]

I got both drives working by swapping hard drive slots. Now both drives show in the bios in ACHI mode and in windows. I am not sure as to the reason swapping worked but it did.

 

[fzabkar]

Could it have been related in some way to the "SATA port sequence shift on different SATA modes" problem???