2TB WD Hard Drive Not Recognized

[the_bean_regime]

The computer had Windows 10 and it was working fine for months. I decided to put Windows 7 back on the PC, and went through a clean install. During the install process, the drive was recognized and I was able to choose it (I did not choose it. I chose my faster 250gb one). After the install, I realized it wasn't recognized in my computer, device manager, nor DISKPART. I checked my bios, and it's not listed there either. It's not particularly old and I dont expect any hardware suddenly died between the start of the install and the finish. The state of the OS is not updated at all, as Windows Updates never works for me on 7 and I have to do it manually (not that that would affect the BIOS).

Specs and what not:
Windows 7 Ultimate (was on Windows 10 Home), both 64 bit
MSI Z170A PC MATE motherboard
Intel i5-6600k CPU
8gb DDR4 ram
EVGA Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 graphics card
250gb Seagate (I believe) internal HDD
2TB Western Digital Green internal HDD

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, @the_bean_regime!

In order to get a clean install of the Windows OS to work properly, you need to unplug the secondary HDD from your system while installing it. This is how you will avoid an OS confusion that could cause a lot of issues with the system updates and boot up. If you had both drives connected while installing Windows 7, I'd recommend you repeat the procedure, only this time make sure the WD Green is not connected to the motherboard.
However, if the drive is not recognized in BIOS either, I'd recommend you swap the SATA cable and the SATA port where the Green internal HDD is connected. You might be dealing with a failed connection which would explain why it's not detected anywhere. Another way to troubleshoot it would be to check how the drive appears in another computer (if you have access to one).
You might also want to check your SATA controller & Chipset drivers straight from the motherboard manufacturer's official website. Make sure you have manually installed the latest driver updates from there. While on it, check your BIOS version as well.
Do you have any important files on the WD Green? Make sure you backup all important data somewhere else as soon as you can access it.

Keep me posted with the troubleshooting!
Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[the_bean_regime]

Welcome to the community, @the_bean_regime!

In order to get a clean install of the Windows OS to work properly, you need to unplug the secondary HDD from your system while installing it. This is how you will avoid an OS confusion that could cause a lot of issues with the system updates and boot up. If you had both drives connected while installing Windows 7, I'd recommend you repeat the procedure, only this time make sure the WD Green is not connected to the motherboard.
However, if the drive is not recognized in BIOS either, I'd recommend you swap the SATA cable and the SATA port where the Green internal HDD is connected. You might be dealing with a failed connection which would explain why it's not detected anywhere. Another way to troubleshoot it would be to check how the drive appears in another computer (if you have access to one).
You might also want to check your SATA controller & Chipset drivers straight from the motherboard manufacturer's official website. Make sure you have manually installed the latest driver updates from there. While on it, check your BIOS version as well.
Do you have any important files on the WD Green? Make sure you backup all important data somewhere else as soon as you can access it.

Keep me posted with the troubleshooting!
Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

Thank you for the response. The drive started appearing, but would cause Windows to crash at "Starting Windows" during boot. When I opened up the computer and unplugged the drive, the computer booted normally and without issue. I took the cable from my CD drive (did not have any extra cables, but I never use the drive anyways. It was just wasting power, really) and plugged it into the hard drive. No issues since!

This computer had been giving me a ridiculous amount of issues since switching to Windows 7 (even if this was hardware, it didn't happen until the switch 😉 ), but everything finally seems to be squared away. Thank god. Now I have driver issues on a laptop to deal with, which are eerily similar to the desktops yet not the same.

Nothing too important other than my ~600gb of video games. That would have been a pain.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

I'm glad to hear that you have resolved the issue, @the_bean_regime!
It looks like it was a faulty SATA cable after all. My recommendation is to always keep a backup of your most precious files on another storage drive as well. (preferably off-site) This is the surest way to avoid any potential data loss in the future. Better safe than sorry, right?

I hope everything works flawlessly! Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD