HDD spins but not in BIOS or disk managment on a working PC

[miniwheats12]

Hi TH community,

I have an internal HDD that is not recognized by my PC's BIOS, spins up when powered, and does not show up in disk management on another working PC using a powered usb drive enclosure.

This all started after a failed windows update and a failed windows recovery. The repair and recovery menu came up after the last boot, but failed. Then the drive stopped showing up in the BIOS. The PC was an ASUS essentio built for windows 8, but the previous owner downgraded to Windows 7. So I thought some of the BIOS settings may have changed and stopped supporting the drive, but I tried pretty much every combination.

Are there any more options to try on this HDD or diagnostic software that will recognize the unrecognizable?

Thanks for the help!

 

[CountMike]

If it doesn't show in BIOS and it's connected right, there's no chance any SW would recognize it.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware, @miniwheats12!

I'm afraid that @CountMike is totally right, if you are unable to get it recognized in BIOS even on multiple systems with various connections, there's not much you can do about a dead HDD. 🙁 However, I'd still recommend you try to get it detected via SATA internally on a different system. Using the USB-powered enclosure. If the HDD was a 3.5", you will need an additional AC adapter to the enclosure in order to supply it with enough power. However, the internal SATA connection is a lot stronger, so you should definitely give it a try through a different system.
I'd also advise you to try swapping the SATA cable and the SATA Port itself where the HDD is currently connected to your system (internally). Hopefully, you are simply dealing with a failed connection, instead of a failed drive.
Do you have any important data on it that is not backed up and needs to be recovered? If you do, it might also be a good idea to consider a professional data recovery company assistance.

Keep us posted.
SuperSoph_WD