[SOLVED] Hard Drives Not Showing Up In Windows, Disk Manager or BIOS

[James999999]

Hi there,
I have a few HDD's from my old PC (a 1tb boot disk and a 2tb storage disk). Something in my old PC finally failed (it was a long time coming, would occasionally start booting then black screen, would then have to restart it and it would usually start back up, until it didn't. I give you this extra info so you know it wasn't the HDD's that caused it to fail and the HDD's were consistent and I have never had any issues with them).

I have another PC and have plugged those HDDs into it, SATA connections and PS connections are fine. SATA ports are enabled in BIOS but show as unoccupied. I don't have anything using the SATA channels, the only other SATA connections in the PC currently are the SSD bootdisk and an optical drive.
The disks do not show up in Disk Management or Device Manager I have updated my BIOS and my SATA controller drivers, tried a whole bunch of disk management utilities from Seagate, Samsung and WD. I'm at a loss, I just cannot get them to work.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!


Drives:
Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3, SATAII, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache

Western Digital 2TB, Caviar Green, up to 7200RPM, SATA-II, 64MB Cache, IntelliPower, NCQ

MOBO:
Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 TH MB

 

[popatim]

If the motherbd bios is in uefi mode then disable secure boot and enable CSM.

 

[James999999]

Hi Tim, thanks for the reply. My BIOS is UEFI but I don't have the 'secure boot' option. I have enabled CSM but no change.

 

[fzabkar]

Did you swap modular cables between your PSUs?

Do the drives still spin up?

 

[James999999]

Did you swap modular cables between your PSUs?

Do the drives still spin up?

Hi fzabkar, Ive tried a few different sata power cables, some that came with the PSU from my current PC and some from my old PC. I can't detect any activity from them, doesn't sound like they are spinning up. Do you think the old PC spiked them when it finally failed? Also just for funsies, during this process my optical drive has stopped appearing in explorer and manager but still shows in bios.

 

[fzabkar]

I suspect that this may be your problem.

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

The usual result is shorted TVS diodes. In most cases there is an easy, no cost, DIY fix.

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

If you need help, please post detailed photos of each of your PCBs.

 

[James999999]

I suspect that this may be your problem.

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

The usual result is shorted TVS diodes. In most cases there is an easy, no cost, DIY fix.

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

If you need help, please post detailed photos of each of your PCBs.

Oh wow, thank you!
I have built all of my PC's in the last 10 years and I had no idea this was a thing! I have certainly exchanged PSU cables in the past and I must have got very lucky until now.
I should be able to identify the right component, though it has been a few years since I did any PCBing, I won't mark it as solved until I chop the diode out and give it a go but I think you've hit the nail on the head there.

 

[fzabkar]

Be prepared for this:

Catastrophic failures in Western Digital PCBs:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=1119

 

[James999999]

Be prepared for this:

Catastrophic failures in Western Digital PCBs:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=1119

You were absolutely right. Checked the diodes and the 5v's are blown. The 12v's seem ok. Haven't had any luck getting the Samsung to run so I think the damage has gone further than the diodes unfortunately.
The WD drive has also had a SMOOTH burnout as per your link there. Hopefully should be able to track down a donor boards for both drives and try for recovery.
Thank you so much for your help!

 

[fzabkar]

The Samsung PCB would have a zero-ohm resistor in series with the 5V diode. If there is no other damage, then flow a blob of solder over the resistor. Your drive should then spin up. Alternatively you could short the resistor by grabbing each side with metal tweezers.

In WD's case there is a real possibility that the preamp on the headstack was damaged.

 

[James999999]

Thanks! I'll bring in my soldering iron tomorrow and give it a go.

 

[James999999]

The Samsung PCB would have a zero-ohm resistor in series with the 5V diode. If there is no other damage, then flow a blob of solder over the resistor. Your drive should then spin up. Alternatively you could short the resistor by grabbing each side with metal tweezers.

In WD's case there is a real possibility that the preamp on the headstack was damaged.

Success on the Samsung! My soldering skills are very rusty but I'm in the process of transferring the data. I think you may be right about the WD, there is some discolouration on the connection points to the headstack. Might be a more complicated surgery from a donor drive. Thanks for all your help!

 

[fzabkar]

That discolouration may be unrelated.

Oxidisation on Western Digital PCBs:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=649

You can measure the resistance of the preamp between ground (eg a screw hole) and pins 2 and 4 (+5V and -5V) at the 20-pin HDA connector. That will tell you whether your drive will require a headstack replacement (not a DIY job).