Windows 7: External Controller/Drive Recognition

Things seemed somewhat normal on my new rig, until I powered on my external drive and found that Windows couldn't see it. I then restarted to the BIOS and along the way, noted that the BIOS run pages did show the controller and the hard drive, but when actually in the BIOS setup, it didn't. On exiting the BIOS, all that I got was a black screen. Hitting the restart button brought up the boot splash and the first screen of the run pages, containing the controller and drive, but then returned to the splashed screen, where it started ringing an alert.

Checking Dr. Debug, it said code 87 which equals "Execute BIOS setup if needed/requested", but hitting Del or any other key would do nothing. I found that with the drive powered off, it boots as always. With it powered on, it screams the alert as I described.

There is no driver installed for the controller yet, because that could only be done if Windows could see it...it doesn't. Driver or not, it shouldn't cause the BIOS problems described. Any ideas on how to fix the problem?

Does "Disk Management" see the drive?

Windows doesn't see it, therefore Computer Management doesn't see it.

I am sure you do, but do you have the latest bios for your MB?

Go to devices and printers from the start menu. select add a device to force windows to scan for new devices. See if that helps.

Not certain. It has the P1.50 BIOS, dated 11-23-2010, but when I search for downloads for this MB, it doesn't find any. When checking the latest BIOS updates, the motherboard isn't listed, yet all of the other updates are of a later date.

EDIT: I finally found the data page, and it is the latest BIOS.

Yes you seem to have the latest. Here is the link if any updates come out in the future.

ASRock > Products > Motherboard > 890FX Deluxe4 > Download

Problem partly solved. For some reason, the OS wasn't set to automatically find and install drivers. After resetting that, it did install the driver for the controller card, and it does appear in the Device Manager now, but if I reboot with the hard drive in the external case turned on, it still squawks the same alert as before and won't continue to boot. If I turn the drive on after Windows has booted, then everything is as it should be. That much is good, but I would like to fix the remaining part of the problem.