Question Can't access HDs after BIOS change and new Windows

Jan 12, 2020
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Hi everyone,

I desperately need some help. My brother's computer was having all sort of issues, barely unusable. It is MSI p67a-c43 with 2500k and a radeon 6870. I decided to reinstall his computer in a new case, reapply paste to CPU, and also did a fresh install of windows 10 on a new SSD. Temps went from 87C to <40C, computer is snappy, everything is great. Here is the only issues. I decided to switch BIOS from IDE to AHCI before doing a fresh install from USB to a new SSD. Both drives were under IDE before. Now I have both drives connected and I can't see them at all in BIOS, or in any software programs (Acronis etc). I tried inputting into different SATA ports on the motherboard and no dice. One is 250GB WD Black, other is Seagate 1TB.

I unplugged the drive before switching. There is something going on with my Windows not recognizing the drives because there were done under IDE? Important data is on them so can't wipe them.
 
Hi everyone,

I desperately need some help. My brother's computer was having all sort of issues, barely unusable. It is MSI p67a-c43 with 2500k and a radeon 6870. I decided to reinstall his computer in a new case, reapply paste to CPU, and also did a fresh install of windows 10 on a new SSD. Temps went from 87C to <40C, computer is snappy, everything is great. Here is the only issues. I decided to switch BIOS from IDE to AHCI before doing a fresh install from USB to a new SSD. Both drives were under IDE before. Now I have both drives connected and I can't see them at all in BIOS, or in any software programs (Acronis etc). I tried inputting into different SATA ports on the motherboard and no dice. One is 250GB WD Black, other is Seagate 1TB.

I unplugged the drive before switching. There is something going on with my Windows not recognizing the drives because there were done under IDE? Important data is on them so can't wipe them.
Plug them into another PC or an external case and see if they are working and that the files are there.
 
Jan 12, 2020
3
0
10
Thanks for replying. So strangely I can see both drive on my PC. We grabbed some needed files off and formatted one of the drives to blank NTFS drive. His computer still could not see it. I tried different SATA cords and different ports on motherboard. I know the SATA power is working as I connected it to a DVD drive to test. So cable is working, power is on. The only thing I didn't do was connect the current SSD to all the different ports but it seems strange that all the other ports would besides that one would have issues. I am pretty careful not to cause any short circuiting.


Any thoughts on why my BIOS refuses to see it? Just this morning both these drives were operating swimmingly on this PC on the ports I was using and the only thing is that I changed to AHCI. And they operate perfectly on my computer. Kind of confused.
 
Thanks for replying. So strangely I can see both drive on my PC. We grabbed some needed files off and formatted one of the drives to blank NTFS drive. His computer still could not see it. I tried different SATA cords and different ports on motherboard. I know the SATA power is working as I connected it to a DVD drive to test. So cable is working, power is on. The only thing I didn't do was connect the current SSD to all the different ports but it seems strange that all the other ports would besides that one would have issues. I am pretty careful not to cause any short circuiting.


Any thoughts on why my BIOS refuses to see it? Just this morning both these drives were operating swimmingly on this PC on the ports I was using and the only thing is that I changed to AHCI. And they operate perfectly on my computer. Kind of confused.
Out of ideas but AHCI has nothing to do with detecting the drives. Its just that you need to format windows as windows won't boot if you changed to AHCI from IDE.
Did you try the HDD on the same SATA port that was working with the SSD?

Edit: Also make sure you are using the same SATA power cable that worked with the SSD.
 
Jan 12, 2020
3
0
10
Exactly. Windows did not boot originally when I made the switch so then what I did was change to AHCI and then I just did a fresh windows install from USB installation media onto the SSD. I have no issues with booting at all anymore unless I switch it back to IDE. In this case I get error on SSD. However the motherboard still refuses to recognize the old hard drives which were recognized right away on my other PC.
 
Exactly. Windows did not boot originally when I made the switch so then what I did was change to AHCI and then I just did a fresh windows install from USB installation media onto the SSD. I have no issues with booting at all anymore unless I switch it back to IDE. In this case I get error on SSD. However the motherboard still refuses to recognize the old hard drives which were recognized right away on my other PC.
Did you try the HDD on the same SATA port that was working with the SSD?
Are you using the same SATA power cable that worked with the SSD?