[SOLVED] Non-SATA Express Storage Devices Undetectable

Nov 5, 2018
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I bought a new Samsung Evo 860 SSD 500GB and tried to connect it to one of my two SATA express ports on my motherboard. Because both of my SATA Express ports were in use, I had to disconnect my Western Digital Black drive, and connect it to the slower SATA receiver elsewhere on the mother board. The new SSD was detected, but the my mechanical drive was now nowhere to be found!

I switched the new SSD with the mechanical drive (essentially switching SATA lanes) and I saw the reverse. I even attempted to switch the SATA cable and got similar results. No matter what I do, my regular SATA connections will not recognize a drive. I even switched power cables to ensure that wasn't an issue.

I reset my BIOS by removing the PC from power and taking out the BIOS battery, and to no avail.

I appreciate any and all ideas!

My relevant specs are as follows:
Intel - Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Gigabyte - GA-Z97-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
G.Skill - Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory
Western Digital - BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (My OS SSD)
Samsung - 860 Evo 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (My new SSD)
MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card
Cooler Master - 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Rosewill - RNX-N250PCe PCI-Express x1 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter

 
Solution
Sorry, I don't think I was clear enough. When I switched the SATA receivers between the mechanical and SSD drives, the SSD was detectable and I was able to run a complete format. Thank you for the information on SATA ports, that is new to me:)

Anyways, this is solved!! I found an odd solution from a thread I happened upon. Another user explained a somewhat similar situation where their third hard drive was undetectable for seemingly no reason. They discovered the following simple steps:

1. Shut down the PC
2. Connect the new drive
3. Boot the PC
4. After boot, RESTART the PC

This solution worked first try for me, I just hope this isn't some quirk I have to live with forever... Time will tell. Thank you for your help Lutfij!

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
What is the model of your CoolerMaster PSU? Are you on the latest BIOS update for your motherboard? Just to rule out the drive being dead or faulty, might want to hook it up to your friends/neighbors system (albeit) don't format the drive if it asks you to when it's detected. If the drive is recognized on your donor system, then you can try using a different SATA data cable to see if that solves the issue.

FYI, the SSD should be on the first SATA data port that is native to your chipset. The mechanical drive being a storage drive can be on any port on your port so long as it's not the primary port.
 
Nov 5, 2018
3
0
10
Sorry, I don't think I was clear enough. When I switched the SATA receivers between the mechanical and SSD drives, the SSD was detectable and I was able to run a complete format. Thank you for the information on SATA ports, that is new to me:)

Anyways, this is solved!! I found an odd solution from a thread I happened upon. Another user explained a somewhat similar situation where their third hard drive was undetectable for seemingly no reason. They discovered the following simple steps:

1. Shut down the PC
2. Connect the new drive
3. Boot the PC
4. After boot, RESTART the PC

This solution worked first try for me, I just hope this isn't some quirk I have to live with forever... Time will tell. Thank you for your help Lutfij!
 
Solution