[SOLVED] BIOS & Windows not reading 2 HDDs, but the SSD with Windows is fine

[VEAmber]

I just moved up to Windows 10 from Windows 7 after buying and installing a new processor, power supply, and motherboard. (Realized one of the parts wasn't compatible with Windows 7 once my keyboard and mouse stopped working in Windows...) Couldn't get through the login screen, so I had to install Windows 10 through USB on boot.
New parts were put in, did a clean install on my SSD, computer is working fine... but since I've put the new parts in, it's no longer showing my WD Blue or Seagate hard drives. Most of my stuff is on them. I realized they weren't options when I went to install windows 10. It's not showing up in BIOS, it's the same working cables I had... I'm so confused. How can I fix this?

Processor: Ryzen 5 2600
Motherboard: Asus Prime B450-Plus

Can provide more information if needed. Please help!

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

when you went to do the initial reinstall of Windows, did you remove the extra drives and only keep the one you were going to install too?

Because if you had other drives in there when you did the install, your entire Windows install is effed, because your MBR (Master Boot Record) is now located on one of those drives, and if you remove either of the drives, you won't be able to boot into Windows.

Let's check to see if Windows can recognize there being hardware in the first place.

Open command prompt in Windows by searching in start menu for CMD, then right click and run as administrator.

Once in admin CMD, type the command:

Diskpart

Then press enter and type in

List Disk

Then press enter again.
You should now see all available storage devices.

If you do see the drives, then you may need to try and just reboot the system.
Can also go into BIOS and see if there's any settings that are preventing the drives from being loaded up and recognized.

If you don't see the hard drives and only the SSD, then it's possible something happened with the connectors for them.

Do a complete shutdown of the PC and flip the power switch on the PSU, then press and hold the power button for 10 seconds to drain residual energy from the system.

then make sure that the both the sata power and sata data cables are firmly and fully plugged into the drives and the motherboard then flip the switch again and boot back up to see if they are there.

 

[VEAmber]

when you went to do the initial reinstall of Windows, did you remove the extra drives and only keep the one you were going to install too?

Because if you had other drives in there when you did the install, your entire Windows install is effed, because your MBR (Master Boot Record) is now located on one of those drives, and if you remove either of the drives, you won't be able to boot into Windows.

Let's check to see if Windows can recognize there being hardware in the first place.

Open command prompt in Windows by searching in start menu for CMD, then right click and run as administrator.

Once in admin CMD, type the command:

Diskpart

Then press enter and type in

List Disk

Then press enter again.
You should now see all available storage devices.

If you do see the drives, then you may need to try and just reboot the system.
Can also go into BIOS and see if there's any settings that are preventing the drives from being loaded up and recognized.

If you don't see the hard drives and only the SSD, then it's possible something happened with the connectors for them.

Do a complete shutdown of the PC and flip the power switch on the PSU, then press and hold the power button for 10 seconds to drain residual energy from the system.

then make sure that the both the sata power and sata data cables are firmly and fully plugged into the drives and the motherboard then flip the switch again and boot back up to see if they are there.

I followed these instructions and only the SSD was listed, not my other two hard drives. I've looked and verified that the sata data cables are all plugged in, seemingly properly. The power cables are definitely in correctly on the hard drive side, but I can't really see my power supply with the way my case is... and the wires were not organized well at all (my friend put everything in for me). I did notice that the SSD (which is located on the other side of the case, away from the other hard drives) now has the new power cable attached that came with the new power supply, whereas the other two are still using the old power cables (that did work). Could it help if I attempted to plug all 3 with one of the new power cables? (Sorry, I'm a beginner)

 

[fzabkar]

"I did notice that the SSD (which is located on the other side of the case, away from the other hard drives) now has the new power cable attached that came with the new power supply, whereas the other two are still using the old power cables (that did work). Could it help if I attempted to plug all 3 with one of the new power cables? (Sorry, I'm a beginner)"

Warning: do not interchange modular PSU cables:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2545

TVS Diode FAQ:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=86

Catastrophic failures in Western Digital PCBs:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=2169

 

[VEAmber]

"I did notice that the SSD (which is located on the other side of the case, away from the other hard drives) now has the new power cable attached that came with the new power supply, whereas the other two are still using the old power cables (that did work). Could it help if I attempted to plug all 3 with one of the new power cables? (Sorry, I'm a beginner)"

Warning: do not interchange modular PSU cables:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2545

TVS Diode FAQ:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=86

Catastrophic failures in Western Digital PCBs:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=2169

Crap. Well, he definitely has the old power cable in for the two that aren't working and used a new one to attach my SSD. Are they broken now? I don't want to lose all my photos and whatnot!

 

[fzabkar]

Read the TVS Diode FAQ. All is not lost.

If you upload detailed photos of your HDD PCBs, I'll help you repair them. The Seagate should be an easy fix, but the WD is a crapshoot. Here's hoping.

 

[Feren142]

Can you try enabling CSM from the BOOT section of the BIOS, restart, then see if your drives are visible from BIOS and the windows environment?

If your old drives are using the old volume (MBR) and you just installed a new motherboard that defaults to UEFI, then your old drives wont show up until you convert them.

 

[VEAmber]

Can you try enabling CSM from the BOOT section of the BIOS, restart, then see if your drives are visible from BIOS and the windows environment?

If your old drives are using the old volume (MBR) and you just installed a new motherboard that defaults to UEFI, then your old drives wont show up until you convert them.

It seems CSM was already enabled. This is what I'm seeing:

https://ibb.co/vxJM3qn

https://ibb.co/xLbM790

https://ibb.co/z4P4JjD ***

https://ibb.co/sbHLHwP

Is there anything else I can try?

 

[VEAmber]

Yes you can get more info about this, please adjust your parts tightly and then check again.


To get more info, feel free to cantact here any time:

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Going to attempt to run new power cables though and rearrange the SATA data cables as soon as I get home. Really hoping that's the issue!

 

[Feren142]

Going to attempt to run new power cables though and rearrange the SATA data cables as soon as I get home. Really hoping that's the issue!

If that fails, you could also try installing the HDDs into an external drive enclosure and see if that gets you anywhere. Run it to the computer through esata or usb. Also, I recommend against using a bus powered enclosure for this test. When you try this, put your ear up to the enclosure and listen closely when you power it up as you should be able to hear the drive spin up. You should also be able to feel the enclosure vibrate gently as it spins up.

 

[VEAmber]

If that fails, you could also try installing the HDDs into an external drive enclosure and see if that gets you anywhere. Run it to the computer through esata or usb. Also, I recommend against using a bus powered enclosure for this test. When you try this, put your ear up to the enclosure and listen closely when you power it up as you should be able to hear the drive spin up. You should also be able to feel the enclosure vibrate gently as it spins up.

I'll definitely keep that in mind if I can figure out a way to test it that way. Thanks for all your input. I'm so distraught over this. Did you see anything wrong with the BIOS pictures I posted by any chance? Just wondering if anything in BIOS would fix it before I pull it all apart. Should I disable and then enable CSM or anything?

 

[digitalgriffin]

If you hear the HDD spin up, all is not lost. You can also feel it when you power on. It will have a slight vibration or hum.

That said it is possible your friend plugged them into a turned off SATA port. On my B450 board, the last two SATA ports are disabled if you set them up to use a M.2 slot on the motherboard as there is a limited number of lanes on the chipset. It's possible yours might be configured in such a way in the UEFI (BIOS)

 

[popatim]

The old cables sent the voltages down the wrong cables to the SSD which hopefully engaged their protective circuitry.
To verify this simply connect one of the new power cables to the HDD, if you don't feel it spin up then this is what happened; basically you blew the 'fuses'.

Follow Fzabkars instructions please.

 

[digitalgriffin]

The old cables sent the voltages down the wrong cables to the SSD which hopefully engaged their protective circuitry.
To verify this simply connect one of the new power cables to the HDD, if you don't feel it spin up then this is what happened; basically you blew the 'fuses'.

Follow Fzabkars instructions please.

It makes me wonder why PSU block connectors haven't been standardized for PCIE and SATA/Accessory yet.

 

[Feren142]

I'll definitely keep that in mind if I can figure out a way to test it that way. Thanks for all your input. I'm so distraught over this. Did you see anything wrong with the BIOS pictures I posted by any chance? Just wondering if anything in BIOS would fix it before I pull it all apart. Should I disable and then enable CSM or anything?

The external drive enclosures are pretty simple to set up and use, here is an example of one below.
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Exte...ocphy=9021534&hvtargid=pla-365069372813&psc=1
The only thing I noticed from BIOS was under secure boot, it looks like you have it set to other OS rather than windows UEFI, but that wouldn't cause issues like this anyway. You can turn CSM off AFTER you confirm that the volumes on the drive are GPT, and since we haven't been able to access them yet I would definitely leave CSM ON for now.

If you find that they are using the old volume MBR(master boot record) you can convert them through the command prompt in windows 10, it's easy, here's a link from Microsoft that talks about it, how to do it, and also has a video with lots of good information in it.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/mbr-to-gpt

As the other poster (fzabkar) was saying, the TVS Diode might have shorted on both drives when they were installed and powered up with the wrong cables. I'm by no means an expert on these things, but as far as I know it's basically like an electrical fuse that is designed to break (short out) before more serious damage occurs. It looks like you can replace them with a little soldering work.

And finally, even if the drives are shorted out data recovery is still possible. If you're like me, and not keen on attempting your own solder job, you might be able to take the drives into a local computer repair shop and see if they can do the soldering for you. I have no idea what something like that might cost, but it's bound to be cheaper than professional data recovery, which can get quite expensive for bigger jobs like server or RAID repair/recovery. In case you're looking for an example I left you a link below, but again this should be your last resort, try the other things suggested in this thread first.
https://drivesaversdatarecovery.com/

 

[VEAmber]

My problem is solved! I think one of the power cables that went through the back of my case was loose. There also seemed to be an additional power cable/extender involved that wasn't necessary at all. We swapped any old cables from the old power supply with new ones and all is well now. Thank you everyone for the suggestions! I definitely learned a few things through this experience and all of your suggestions were great.