Help, hard disk not detected

[crosten]

I just bought a samsung F3 HD103sj hard disk

I am using a MSI platinum K9A2 motherboard.


My motherboard is not able to detect the hard disk, please help

thank you

 

[1haplo]

You may need to add a jumper to limit the speed to SATA 1.5.

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/200510/20051010165142468_3.5_SATA_eng_r4.pdf

 

[crosten]

i have already add the jumpers

still the motherboard is still not able to detect the drive

my motherboard "MSI platinum K9A2" is using sata 2

 

[pjmelect]

Silly question but is the SATA interface enabled in the BIOS.

 

[crosten]

yes sata interface enable in the bios

 

[Paperdoc]

More details, please. You say, "My motherboard is not able to detect the hard disk". How do you know - what information led you to this conclusion?

1. If you have looked in BIOS Setup at the details of your SATA ports and they are Enabled, does the BIOS show the new HDD as a piece of hardware it can detect? If not, you have a problem with (a) a bad new HDD; (b) a bad set of cables to the new HDD; or (c) a bad mobo SATA port. Try hooking the HDD into another computer. Try switching cables. See if you can isolate the problem that way.

2. If the BIOS shows the HDD, then the motherboard CAN detect the HDD. Now we're heading for software problems. First one: IF your OS is XP of any version or an earlier one, it cannot handle SATA or AHCI devices without the installation of a driver. This is NOT the case for Vista or Win 7. So look in BIOS setup near the SATA port configuration and find a line for SATA Port Mode. IF you have XP as your OS, set it to something like IDE (or PATA) Emulation. If you have Vista or Win 7 as your OS, you can set it to AHCI. Do NOT set it to RAID.

3. Within Windows you will NOT see your new empty drive in My Computer. So if that is the basis of your diagnosis, you need to look elsewhere. The place to look for new drive hardware is in a particular part of Disk Management. Click on Start, RIGHT-click on My Computer, and choose Manage. In the left part of that new window expand Storage if necessary and click on Disk Management. The right part of the window will split into two panes. Each SCROLLS so you can see all their contents. Look at the LOWER RIGHT pane. It shows all the disk hardware that is in the machine, including some (like your new one) that Windows cannot use yet. Each device is represented by a horizontal block with a small sub-block at its left end containing some label info like "Disk_2", a size, etc. To the right, the rest of the space will show sub-blocks representing Partitions established on this HDD unit for use as "drives". Your existing older drives will show these blocks, each of them with more info like a Volume Name, a letter name like C:, a size, a File System like NTFS, and a status. The new empty drive will not have this because no Partition has been created yet. It probably is just labeled "Unallocated Space". If that is what you see, you have NO hardware issue and you simply need to do a couple of steps here in Disk Management to get the drive working.

So, what details can you report? Tell us what you see where, and we can advise.

 

[crosten]

More details, please. You say, "My motherboard is not able to detect the hard disk". How do you know - what information led you to this conclusion?

1. If you have looked in BIOS Setup at the details of your SATA ports and they are Enabled, does the BIOS show the new HDD as a piece of hardware it can detect? If not, you have a problem with (a) a bad new HDD; (b) a bad set of cables to the new HDD; or (c) a bad mobo SATA port. Try hooking the HDD into another computer. Try switching cables. See if you can isolate the problem that way.

2. If the BIOS shows the HDD, then the motherboard CAN detect the HDD. Now we're heading for software problems. First one: IF your OS is XP of any version or an earlier one, it cannot handle SATA or AHCI devices without the installation of a driver. This is NOT the case for Vista or Win 7. So look in BIOS setup near the SATA port configuration and find a line for SATA Port Mode. IF you have XP as your OS, set it to something like IDE (or PATA) Emulation. If you have Vista or Win 7 as your OS, you can set it to AHCI. Do NOT set it to RAID.

3. Within Windows you will NOT see your new empty drive in My Computer. So if that is the basis of your diagnosis, you need to look elsewhere. The place to look for new drive hardware is in a particular part of Disk Management. Click on Start, RIGHT-click on My Computer, and choose Manage. In the left part of that new window expand Storage if necessary and click on Disk Management. The right part of the window will split into two panes. Each SCROLLS so you can see all their contents. Look at the LOWER RIGHT pane. It shows all the disk hardware that is in the machine, including some (like your new one) that Windows cannot use yet. Each device is represented by a horizontal block with a small sub-block at its left end containing some label info like "Disk_2", a size, etc. To the right, the rest of the space will show sub-blocks representing Partitions established on this HDD unit for use as "drives". Your existing older drives will show these blocks, each of them with more info like a Volume Name, a letter name like C:, a size, a File System like NTFS, and a status. The new empty drive will not have this because no Partition has been created yet. It probably is just labeled "Unallocated Space". If that is what you see, you have NO hardware issue and you simply need to do a couple of steps here in Disk Management to get the drive working.

So, what details can you report? Tell us what you see where, and we can advise.

1) Bios did not show the HDD,
no problem with sata cable as it is able to detect my current HDD
not a bad mobo SATA port as it is able to detect my current HDD
Remember i Am upgrading to this new HDD "samsung F3 HD103sj ", this is not a new setup, just new HDD


2) Bios did not show the HDD,


3) I am sawpping my old HDD with the new HDD "samsung F3 HD103sj "
I intend to make this new HDD my primary.
I am not doing any raid

 

[pjmelect]

Sounds like you have a bad drive. Check that the voltage to the drive is 5 volts +- 0.25 V This voltage tolerance is critical as under or over this voltage and the drive will disable itself.

 

[Paperdoc]

I agree - bad drive indicated. The mobo port and cables work perfectly with another HDD, but cannot detect this Samsung unit. It certainly is NOT a port compatibility issue - HDD and port are both SATA II 3.9 Gb/s.

 

[Guest]

Sounds like you have a bad drive. Check that the voltage to the drive is 5 volts +- 0.25 V This voltage tolerance is critical as under or over this voltage and the drive will disable itself.

Don't know so much about this things but sound like you no your stuff. I've got more or less same problem. Maybe you can help. With my other mother bord (that gave in) could pick up both my hard drives in bios but put another motherboard in (Secondhand one) and now only pick up my one hard drive but not one that works with sata cable. Not even computer shops can help me. The suggested a bios update but I'm to scared to try that and maybe ah heck up my pc.

If you can help will realy appreciate.