New PC doesn't recognize drives or USB devices.

[L_Kenter]

Hi everyone,

This is probably a very stupid thing I did wrong, but this is the first PC I build from scratch, so please be gentle

So I just finished assembling my brand new PC, tried the lazy Windows disk switch (which worked great) and it booted on the first try. I got into Windows, everything worked fine, and I did a restart to finish installing some drivers etc. Just before I restarted I noticed I forgot to attach my storage HDD. So I turned the PC off, connected the HDD, pressed the power button and I get the message that no drives or USB devices were detected. It then automatically goes into BIOS after a while, but I can't do anything else than shutting it down because my keyboard and mouse don't work.

I tried resetting the BIOS (removing the battery for a few seconds), I tried all USB ports, I tried a different keyboard, and consulted the manual, which wasn't really helpful either. Of course I tried it again without the HDD connected, but to no avail.

Specs are:
i5 6600K (stock speeds since I didn't even get a chance to overclock it) with CM 212 evo cooler
Asus Z170K motherboard
16GB DDR4 2133
Gigabyte G1 GTX 1070
2x Samsung 850 EVO 120GB
1x Toshiba 7200RMP 1TB HDD
2x DVDR/W drives
Wifi Antenna PCI card
USB 2.0 PCI expansion card

I'm listing those not-so-interesting components as well, since there might just be an issue with those which I'm not aware of.

I'm pretty sure none of the components are broken or DOA because of that first boot.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do to fix this issue?

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there L_Kenter,

So you've attached a drive that had pre installed OS on it right?
I believe the best thing you can do is to just perform a clean OS install. Of course, you need to back up your data.

Apart from that, you can try to run some start up repair and see if it would have any effect.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[L_Kenter]

Thanks for your reply. The funny thing is, I indeed used an SSD with win 10 already on it, and when I first booted it up, it worked like a charm. Everything worked fine, and after it was done installing additional drivers for the new hardware, it asked for a reboot. After connecting just that one HDD with some videos and music on it, it wouldn't recognize any of the drives or USB devices.

I'd like to avoid a reinstall since I had a digital copy of Win 7, which I upgraded to Win 10. I don't have a disc or anything to do a legit reinstall. Do you have any suggestions on how to tackle this problem?