Installing Windows 8.1 and it Doesn't Recognize my Hard Drive

[TaylorNotThatSwift]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($119.99)
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC12DX_BK 68.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Cooling MX4 4g Thermal Paste ($6.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($74.97 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston Fury Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.19 @ OutletPC)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($48.98)
Case Fan: Kingwin CF-012LB 40.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($3.99 @ Micro Center)
Other: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB ($65.00)
Total: $544.06
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-17 19:54 EST-0500

The above is my PC build and I put everything together and it's working great. The PC comes on and I get sent to my Gigabyte BIOS. I have Windows 8.1 on a flash drive and am installing it from there. I enter my key and tell it to install Windows, except it doesn't recognize my 2TB hard drive.

I downloaded an "AMD SATA AHCI Driver" on my motherboard webpage (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5194&dl=1#driver) from Gigabyte's website onto my flash drive but even after that, Windows won't detect my hard drive.

Does anybody have an idea as to what I should do?

 

[iamlegend]

You have to format your HDD to NTFS inorder for your mobo to recognize this.

Search in youtube on "how to format HDD using commands".

You`ll have to use commands like, "chckdsk", "disklist", etc.
There is a youtube guide in doing this.

 

[Gaveroid]

Yeah, what is the HDD formatted to? Although it doesn't have to be NTFS I believe, Windows only installs to a couple of common formats (NTFS, and FAT32 are two of the few I believe).

 

[TaylorNotThatSwift]

Well, I just feel plain stupid now! :/

Turns out I didn't plug in my SATA cable to the hard drive or motherboard so it wasn't being detected. Thanks for your help, though! Almost gave myself a heart attack thinking my hard drive was dead, but I should have just checked cables! Didn't think my computer would even boot up, though, without a hard drive, but apparently it can. Thanks!

 

[Riki Curtis]

Well yes, it can. You had a bootable USB so that's why your PC booted to that. You don't need a hard disk to get that far. Glad you got it sorted, now you know that cabling is one of the first troubleshooting steps to take! 😛