Question Cannot get two new HDDs to show up.

[Micah_12]

I recently received my order for two new Seagate Barracuda hard drives and just spent the last hour trying to install them without any success.

They are both properly plugged in and the SATA cables are both new and of good quality and they are also detected in BIOS, but when I try and get them to show up in Windows 7 (still holding on to it....), they just wont appear.
One I am pretty sure is a dud, as it squeaks and chirps like a hyper bird, but I am unsure of the other one as it sounds like a jet engine when the computer boots up but then quiets down to a normal sound after.
So it could very well be that both drives are duds, but I thought I'd ask for some advice before I tackle that issue.

I went to disk management and went through the steps and even got the initialize disk option to show up, and after about ten minutes of a frozen PC and horrible sounds from the one drive, the process finished.
Neither drive ever appeared.
I unhooked the one I knew was a problem, put that aside and tried again, but I still can't get the "good one" to show up.

Any advice, or should I just send them both back and request new ones?

 

[Grobe]

First time I heard hard drives being assigned a gender (like dude ?).

Can I ask why you still use W7, and do you use that same computer for internet purposes ?

Before any further going with this, first you should tell what motherboard and storage controllers you're using.

Second - assuming this is a somewhat old computer, try to boot up Linux (can use Linux Mint for example) and see if you can access the hdd. You can use the "Disks" tool or also the Gparted (advanced partition tool) should also be available in Mint.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Any advice, or should I just send them both back and request new ones?

Please show screenshots:

BIOS screen, where drives are displayed,​

Disk Management,​

Device Manager - disk drives and storage controllers sections expanded,​

Windows Storage spaces.​

(upload to imgur.com and post link)

 

[Micah_12]

Please show screenshots:

BIOS screen, where drives are displayed,​

Disk Management,​

Device Manager - disk drives and storage controllers sections expanded,​

Windows Storage spaces.​

(upload to imgur.com and post link)

I Can't get a picture of the BIOS screen, but I can get the others.

https://imgur.com/a/1R1sroZ

View: https://imgur.com/a/1R1sroZ

And I didn't think it was necessary to screenshot the storage space when I can list that I have about 20 GBs available out of 931 on the main drive, but if you do need it (or if I misunderstood) let me know.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Please remove all external drives and have just internal drives connected.

I'm assuming, your external drives are working properly.
Such high number of drives in those screenshots just causes confusion.

Those Seagate Barracudas are internal drives. Correct?

What is model name of motherboard used?

 

[Micah_12]

Please remove all external drives and have just internal drives connected.

I'm assuming, your external drives are working properly.
Such high number of drives in those screenshots just causes confusion.

Those Seagate Barracudas are internal drives. Correct?

What is model name of motherboard used?

The Barracudas are internal, that is correct.
And I cannot unplug the other drives at the moment as I need them up and they are plugged into the back of the PC right now and due to a neck injury I can't move it or myself enough to get back there and plug and unplug the proper cords.

The Motherboard is a bit of an issue...
It's ASUS and over 12 years ago, that's all I remember.
The Computer was built a long time ago and the memories of the motherboards specifics has long since faded...
I was planning on building a new one soon but I just haven't gotten around to it as my current build, while heavily outdated, has actually held up exceptionally well.

 

[Ralston18]

Where did the Seagate drives come from? Vendor?

And I will ask about the PSU.

Make, model, wattage, age, condition (original to build, new, refurbished, used)?

= = = =

Provided that I understood correctly the main drive is 931 GB and filled to 911 GB. Way too full in my mind. I limit my drives to 70-80% capacity.

Good chance that the main drive is being worked hard just trying to find space. Has the drive ever been cleaned and/or de-fragged (HDD only).

= = = =

Do you have someone who can help you get to the power cords etc.?

Or otherwise re-arrange things so you can gain easy access to the cords and drives? May not be necessary but just in case......

= = = =

Common factors seemingly drive related.

Is all important data on those drives backed up to locations off of the problem computer? Data should be backed up at least 2 x and verified to be recoverable and readable.

= = = =

Also if you can take screenshots or photos they can be posted here via imgur (www.imgur.com).

 

[Micah_12]

Where did the Seagate drives come from? Vendor?

And I will ask about the PSU.

Make, model, wattage, age, condition (original to build, new, refurbished, used)?

= = = =

Provided that I understood correctly the main drive is 931 GB and filled to 911 GB. Way too full in my mind. I limit my drives to 70-80% capacity.

Good chance that the main drive is being worked hard just trying to find space. Has the drive ever been cleaned and/or de-fragged (HDD only).

= = = =

Do you have someone who can help you get to the power cords etc.?

Or otherwise re-arrange things so you can gain easy access to the cords and drives? May not be necessary but just in case......

= = = =

Common factors seemingly drive related.

Is all important data on those drives backed up to locations off of the problem computer? Data should be backed up at least 2 x and verified to be recoverable and readable.

= = = =

Also if you can take screenshots or photos they can be posted here via imgur (www.imgur.com).

Hard Drives came directly from Newegg.
Power supply is a CX 850M Corsair, purchased new about.... 6 years(?) ago to replace the old one.
Seems to be holding up fine.

The main drive is indeed overfilled, but thus is the purpose of new drives.
Most of my old storage drives only have about 1TB of space, so stocking up on 8TB drives would have solved that issue, but, well, new issues arose.

And no, the cables in the back are presently staying put until my neck heals.
If further screenshots are needed, I can edit out/censor the external drives as it really is quite simple to identify them.

 

[SkyNetRising]

The Motherboard is a bit of an issue...
memories of the motherboards specifics has long since faded...

You can find motherboard model name with CPU-Z - motherboard section.

BIOS screenshot with internal drives listed would be helpful.
Or if you could show, how internal drives are connected to motherboard.

Did you try different sata ports?

 

[Ralston18]

A six year old PSU is a likely suspect. May be nearing or beyond its' designed in EOL (End of Life) and starting to falter or fail in some manner.

Remember PSUs provide three different voltages (3, 5, and 12) to various system components.

The drive's added power demands may have hit some threshold after which the PSU can no longer keep up.

Look in Reliability History and Event viewer for error codes, warnings, and even informational events that occur just before or after: 1) the hard drives were installed, and 2) just before or when the other posted problems occurred, and 3) just before or when other things may have happened.

If there are no apparent or relevant error codes the next step would be to test the existing PSU by swapping in another known working PSU or using a multi-meter to test (limited) the existing PSU.

FYI:

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-manually-test-a-power-supply-with-a-multimeter-2626158

 

[Micah_12]

You can find motherboard model name with CPU-Z - motherboard section.

BIOS screenshot with internal drives listed would be helpful.
Or if you could show, how internal drives are connected to motherboard.

Did you try different sata ports?

Can't get any pictures or screenshots of the BIOS.
I tried different SATA ports and cables.
And thanks to CPU-Z, I was able to find out what kind of severely outdated motherboard I have.

https://imgur.com/gIfuu68

View: https://imgur.com/gIfuu68