Help with new built pc

[bprimetimel]

Hi, I just built my first pc earlier tonight (it's almost 3am damnit), and when I finally got it to boot up, I get an error saying, "3rd master hard disk error." I then shut off the pc, switched SATA ports for my hard drive and I still get the same message, with a different numbering this time.

So ignoring the message I tried to go ahead with my Windows 7 installation anyway and when I get to the page where I choose the installation destination, it shows my drive only has 3.9gb available! I have this drive, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=22-148-701&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=driver&Page=1#scrollFullInfo
Am I supposed to download a drive or format or something? I'm completely lost here. Or did I get a defective drive and should get an RMA ASAP?

I really need all the help I can get!

Thanks in advance.

 

[Outlander_04]

got the power and data cables plugged in?

 

[zerrith]

What is your mobo? I usually plug my HDD into the whatever port the mobo manual has labeled as SATA1. When you go into BIOS, does it recognize the drive? What setting is the drive IDE or ACPI?

 

[bprimetimel]

All of my parts are new. Got about half and half from Amazon and Newegg. Here's the setup.

ASRock 870 Extreme3 (Amazon)
Phenom II X4 955 (Amazon)
PNY Optima 8gb, DDR3 1333 (2 x 4gb) (Amazon)
XFX Radeon 6870 (Amazon)
Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner (Newegg)
Seagate 500gb ST3500413AS 7200 RPM SATA 6gb/s (Newegg)
Sentey Black BX1-4284 V2.1 Tower (Newegg)
Raidmax RX-850AE 850W Gold Certified (Newegg)

It's recognized on bootup, it says SATA3_1 is IDE hard drive or something similar, but it also gives me that 3rd master hard drive failure message at the bottom. It's set up as IDE in the BIOS.

Is the hard drive DOA or something?

 

[bprimetimel]

Oh, uhh...I think the setting for the hard drive is set to IDE then, or something like that. I remember IDE appearing next storage device in the BIOS.

 

[bprimetimel]

What do I change it to? I can't check right now because I'm at work, but I remember the options for storage device were limited to: RAID, IDE, and AHCI.

 

[zerrith]

When you say the drive is recognized, does it show up as 500 GB when you look at the properties in the BIOS?

As for the IDE/AHCI/RAID, IDE should be fine. My system uses IDE emulation mode and works just fine. I did some poking around and almost all instances of that error point to a defective drive. Do you have another drive you can plug in to see if that works?

 

[bprimetimel]

When you say the drive is recognized, does it show up as 500 GB when you look at the properties in the BIOS?

As for the IDE/AHCI/RAID, IDE should be fine. My system uses IDE emulation mode and works just fine. I did some poking around and almost all instances of that error point to a defective drive. Do you have another drive you can plug in to see if that works?

Under BIOS, it's listed as 0 MB. Do I need to partition the drive first or something since I bought the bare version? Do I use FDISK for that? So boot Windows 7 setup and then go into command prompt and type in fdisk?

Should I try setting it to AHCI mode? I went out during lunch and bought another drive just in case I need to ship this one back to Newegg for a refund. (don't want to wait for replacement) I will try this other drive if I still can't get the Seagate drive to work.

 

[bprimetimel]

Best answer selected by bprimetimel.

 

[reentreent23]

Hey I bought the same seagate barracuda 500gb 7200 hard drive from newegg and I am getting the same error message. This is frustrating the heck out of me. I peersonally just think that it has something to do with these hard drives. There must be a defect or something