Hard Drive Not Detected By BIOS or Disk Management

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mrawesomeness

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I don't know much about computers, so bear with me.
I'm currently using a Windows 7 PC built by a friend of mine, but starting yesterday, its been acting up. The problem is there used to be two hard drives I can access, Drive B and Drive C.
When I boot up the computer, BIOS only detects Drive C (if I'm not mistaken), and Disk Managements as well. I realized this when all the programs whose targets are on that drive are all broken on the desktop.
So Drive B doesn't show up anywhere at all.
How can I fix this problem? Thanks.
 
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It is likely that your HDD has failed at a hardware level assuming it was working in the system over a period of time. Make sure the power and cable is plugged into the drive in case one of them has come loose. If it cant be seen in Disk Management and BIOS it is simply not communicating with the motherboard. This indicates hardware failure.
 
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Hi

some obvious questions

Can the Bios see one or 2 hard disks ?
(Bios does not see drive letters, usually gives details about make & model and size)

Did you have two partitions on one hard disk or two hard disks ? (open case and look inside ?)

I wonder how or why drive letter B: was allocated ? ( usually A: & B: reserved for floppy disks )

If electronics fails on circuit board on hard disk it may not be visible to BIOS,
similarly if power or data cable becomes disconnected hard disk disappears.

regards
Mike Barnes
 
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There are two partitions I believe. They look like two separate devices.

So when I boot up, it says it detects a Samsung hard drive, but just the one.
I'm not sure how it was allocated, but it has been working perfectly with the two drives for a while before it suddenly disappeared. Is this common?
I will be checking the cables and connections in the meantime.
Thanks.
 
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Well, what happened when u double clicked on B drive?(did it asked for disk insert or it showed u content of the drive?)

Du u have a floppy drive at all? Look inside, just to be sure, there are not 2 HDD's. Also write down size.

Go to device manager (Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Device Manager and make right click on disk drive and select scan for hardware changes. Than check if there was any change in disk drive.
 
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Well Drive B is the one not showing up, and I'm pretty sure there's no floppy drive. There are two HDDs for sure. Only one shows up.

When I "Scan for Hardware Changes", nothing happens. Under "Disk Drives" only four "USB Devices" and one "Samsung HD501LJ ATA Device" comes up.

BIOS shows the Samsung drive on Port 4 but on Port 5, "no device detected" so I'm guessing that's where the missing HDD should be?

Is there any way I could find out if the undetected HDD itself is damaged?
 
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I have, to my knowledge, checked both the power and data cables' connections, and they fit snug.

This is what BIOS shows:

4ERWP.jpg


How would I try another port? I'm not familiar with other ports on the motherboard.

sLcuf.jpg


JIr5R.jpg


Thanks a lot for your responses nikkor.



 
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Ok well at least we know there are two physical HDD's. It would be helpful if we actually knew what make of Motherboard that is. I am not sure as to why Ports 2 and 3 and not showing up but we have 0, 1, 4, 5. I did manage to track what the board most likely is as I could just make out most of the model number. It looks like a more basic version of another board which has additional ports. I assume that those other ports which are not present on this board may be the ones which are normally referred to as Ports 2, 3. Correct me if I am wrong.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2629#sp

Port 0 is showing up as no device which would be correct as the top port is clearly not connected to anything. Port 1 has the Black Cable which I assume is attached to the Optical Drive referred to on Port 1. As we know 2, 3 are not present. 4 detects the HDD on that port but 5 does not and it is clear the cables are attached.

You could try moving the cable from Port 5 to the top one which is Port 0. This may change your boot order so make sure that you set the boot order correctly. However I suspect that your second HDD has failed and will require replacement.
 
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excuse me but what the hell are you talking about

hdd's have 2 cables

data and power there is no negative and you can buy angled power conecters i just thought the problem could be a bad conection,


swap both leads from one hdd to the other and see if it works, then if it is still the same try chaning the port the broken hdd is plugged into

there should be a port that looks the same

(sorry if this is hard to understand, wrote this on phone)
 
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excuse me but what the hell are you talking about

hdd's have 2 cables

data and power there is no negative and you can buy angled power conecters i just thought the problem could be a bad conection,


swap both leads from one hdd to the other and see if it works, then if it is still the same try chaning the port the broken hdd is plugged into

there should be a port that looks the same

(sorry if this is hard to understand, wrote this on phone)
 
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excuse me but what the hell are you talking about

hdd's have 2 cables

data and power there is no negative and you can buy angled power conecters i just thought the problem could be a bad conection,


swap both leads from one hdd to the other and see if it works, then if it is still the same try chaning the port the broken hdd is plugged into

there should be a port that looks the same

(sorry if this is hard to understand, wrote this on phone)
 
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I thought it was clear that I am talking about one and only angled SATA cable in the picture. It's bent like swans neck the other way, and if u would know, power cable sits very tight(so I would not mean that one). But u bought an angled SATA cable and position it worst way posible.

A simple flip of the drive to the right, by 180°, will correct it and make no stress point on it. Angle it with a little force while PC is running and your connection will get faulty and it might not post and it could corrupt data, so its just an easy step to prevent it. That is one of the reasons why they make the cable like that.

BTW, is the drive buzzing when u touch it?

And is it warm?

And which one is the "bad" one?

Can u try to plug it in another port? Not just check it. Sometimes it helps.

+

Wamphryi's post is one more way to try.

 
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That is actually the exact model of the motherboard, it says "GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L". Just to be clear, the ports are the yellow ones on the motherboard right?

So I should swap the lowest cable (Port 5) to the top yellow port? Also, how would I change the boot order?
Thanks a lot guys.

@nikkor only the bottom HDD is warm, the top one is cold, so I think the one with the bent cable is the one that's actually working properly.
 
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No, I meant "no power" as HDD is dead. Maybe SATA or power cable is bad or connector on HDD or board on HDD are bad.

U can try different SATA and power cable to eliminate all options.

Just in case do it again, since it is in different port.

Go to device manager (Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Device Manager and make right click on disk drive and select scan for hardware changes. Than check if there was any change in disk drive.
 
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Nope, nothing happens still. Should I try to take all the connections apart and reconnect them?
 
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