Question DOA Hard drives?

Dustin Jacocks

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Jun 19, 2013
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Hello everyone. I'm making this because I'm having such a headache of an issue. I bought 2 brand new WD 1tb HDD and plopped them in my system. Well they wont get recognized by windows, or in the BIOS. I used brand new SATA data cables and even tried all 6 of my PSU SATA power cables. But the weird thing is, is my boot ssd drive will come up each time but not the HDD's. I even switched cablesa from the SSD to each HDD and still nothing. But the SSD will come up using the cables that were attached to the HDD. I even take the HDD and hook them up to another system, and still the same results. Both the drives spin up as well. What could be the issue? I even went and returned one of the drives for a NEW one. Same issue. I'm stumped. I have even tried EACH SATA port on the motherboard as well. The motherboard is an ASUS strix b450-f.
 
Have you checked "windows partition manager" to see if the disks have been initialized?

Sometimes disks won't show up because they were not initialized before being shipped. Once you initialize them in the partition manager you should be able to see them. Make sure they're initialized as NTFS and GPT format.
 

Dustin Jacocks

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Have you checked "windows partition manager" to see if the disks have been initialized?

Sometimes disks won't show up because they were not initialized before being shipped. Once you initialize them in the partition manager you should be able to see them. Make sure they're initialized as NTFS and GPT format.
Thanks for the respond. I did mention that WINDOWS itself wont detect it. Only thing that shows up in disk mang. is my ssd. I have all my sata ports enabled as well in bios. Even in CMD prompt, when i check disk list, only my ssd shows up.
 
Thanks for the respond. I did mention that WINDWOS itself wont detect it. Only thing that shows up in disk mang. is my ssd. I have all my sata ports enabled as well in bios. Even in CMD prompt, when i check disk list, only my ssd shows up.

Looks like you've covered all the corners then, it's possible that either:
  • Your sata ports themselves are bad (even though you tested it on another computer)
  • Your bridge connector is bottlenecked (least likely)
  • There isn't enough power for the drives (though HDD's 3.5" take about 5-10 watts each)
  • You keep getting DOA drives with bad logic boards (most likely but still unlucky)

Try getting another brand, and put it in another computer first before your own to see if your computer is the source of the problem, if there was any with your computer frying the drives some how.
 

Dustin Jacocks

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Looks like you've covered all the corners then, it's possible that either:
  • Your sata ports themselves are bad (even though you tested it on another computer)
  • Your bridge connector is bottlenecked (least likely)
  • There isn't enough power for the drives (though HDD's 3.5" take about 5-10 watts each)
  • You keep getting DOA drives with bad logic boards (most likely but still unlucky)
Try getting another brand, and put it in another computer first before your own to see if your computer is the source of the problem, if there was any with your computer frying the drives some how.
I will try the "getting another brand".
 

Dustin Jacocks

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Jun 19, 2013
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Looks like you've covered all the corners then, it's possible that either:
  • Your sata ports themselves are bad (even though you tested it on another computer)
  • Your bridge connector is bottlenecked (least likely)
  • There isn't enough power for the drives (though HDD's 3.5" take about 5-10 watts each)
  • You keep getting DOA drives with bad logic boards (most likely but still unlucky)
Try getting another brand, and put it in another computer first before your own to see if your computer is the source of the problem, if there was any with your computer frying the drives some how.
Okay so I went back to bestbuy to return the "dead" drive. They didnt have any Seagate drives so with me being very impatient, I went ahead and swapped it for another NEW WD drive. And still, it wont connect. Maybe buy a new board and see then? lol.
 
Okay so I went back to bestbuy to return the "dead" drive. They didnt have any Seagate drives so with me being very impatient, I went ahead and swapped it for another NEW WD drive. And still, it wont connect. Maybe buy a new board and see then? lol.

But you said you tested the drives on another computer. If that's true then it's not your boards fault. You also said you used SATA cables you know worked and same for the power cords. Last thing I can think of is that perhaps the SATA ports themselves are turned OFF, not defective. Search through your BIOS for the SATA port settings.
 

Dustin Jacocks

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But you said you tested the drives on another computer. If that's true then it's not your boards fault. You also said you used SATA cables you know worked and same for the power cords. Last thing I can think of is that perhaps the SATA ports themselves are turned OFF, not defective. Search through your BIOS for the SATA port settings.
All sata ports were enabled.
 

Dustin Jacocks

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See what happens if you reduce the SATA interface speed via the OPT1 jumper (or Phy Enabled jumper):

http://www.supremelaw.org/systems/wd/western.digital.jumper.settings.pdf

If you install the PM2 jumper, does the drive Power Up In Standby, and does BIOS then detect it?
Im just gonna go ahead and say the sata controller is <Mod Edit> on the board somehow. I have SATA drives that dont have jumpers. But lets say the SATA controller is <Mod Edit>, I dont see how my SSD works then. In ALL the sata ports.
 
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Boss this was just covered last week I guess some drives have NEW SATA protocols as far as the wiring. The 3 volt pinout is a stop gag using a Newer Drive on older SATA wires. do a forum search as I cant seem to locate it but I think that's your problem.
 

Dustin Jacocks

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There are known problems with some early SATA controllers not being able to negotiate a link with certain drives. The workaround was to jumper the drives so that they negotiated a slower link speed. Perhaps you have encountered a similar quirk?
I mean with my drives being SATA, it wouldn't hurt to find a jumper and place it on 2 of the prongs and see?