New HDD Woes

[Sanslaw]

I have a Dell X5450 desktop with an AMD quad core processor running Windows 7 professional 64bit. My new HDD unit is a Western Digital WD Blue 1TB Sata drive and all of my cables are in order and appear to be functioning. I'm planning on installing it as a back up drive, transfering my data on to it from my existing drive, then removing the old drive and using the WD Blue as my sole drive. The problem I'm having is that, for the life of me, I cannot get the new HD to show up. Bios shows nothing, Sata ports 0, 1, and 2 are in use with ports 3 and 4 claiming they are empty and the new drive does not appear in Windows either. I read that Dell's make you open the ports manually but they appear empty when enabled. I think the new drive might be installed in port 2, but I can't really tell. I enabled the second port earlier this morning but still can't figure out how to find the drive in Windows. What am I missing?

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Sanslaw,

Sorry that you are facing some issues with your WD drive.
Does it seem that the HDD is powering up? In case it is not recognized by BIOS, I doubt that you will find it in Windows.
Usually, your OS drive should be on port 0 while your secondary one could be on port 1 let's say. What do you mean that SATA ports 1 and 2 are in use? What is attached to them?

One thing you can try is to attach the WD HDD to the slot where your primary HDD is currently installed.(with same cables) Of course, your system will not boot, but you can go to BIOS and see whether the drive is recognized in BIOS. In case it is not, then there may be something wrong with it. In case it is, then I guess there is something wrong with your system and you can try some simple troubleshooting steps like just using different cables(SATA and power ones). I say that you have mentioned that your cables are in order but it will not hurt to use different ones(the ones from your OS drive let's say).

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD