Installing win 7 64 using uefi

My PC crashed so I decided it was about time I built a new one. Got a barebones from Novatech, a fresh copy of win 7 Pro 64 and a new 60Gb SSD.

My intention was to install Win 7 to the SSD and then use my two old SATA hard drives for storage and odd Linux distros. These drives have my PC history on them having been successively added to from previous machines so I assumed I could recover all the data from them.

Having been seduced into installing the OS under uefi and to avoid accidents only the SSD was connected during install. That went OK and apart from a glitch finding the drivers on the MB install disc the installation completed. I can get on line and I started to load some of my bits and pieces, netmeter for example. However when I connected up my old drives they do not appear in the bios nor in Explorer. Is this because of uefi? I installed in uefi and legacy mode I believe, but should I now clean format/delete the SSD and install in Legacy mode to see all my data?

Sorry to be so long winded but I needed to explain fully my problem. I hope someone can help.

Tony

Check in Disk Mgmt if the drives are shown as you scroll down, perhaps needing a drive letter to apply to make them visible in Win7.

Check in BIOS setup that storage drives are enabled for CSM or UEFI and Legacy. But this should only pertain to OS install and not data drives. However you may need a setting to recognize MBR drives in BIOS setup. So let us see pictures of the related settings showing all choices in BIOS.

Why was it necessary to have the mobo disk during install? All SATA drivers should be in installer, and the rest of the drivers should come in via Windows UPdates requiring only the network driver to get online to install them.

More tips here for a Clean Reinstall Windows 7

Thanks Gregrocker for response. The mobo disk was necessary to provide a driver for the nic and incidentally for usb but that last was not so essential. It's very late here in UK and I'm posting this on an old slow laptop. I will fire up the new machine tomorrow and try to answer some of your questions about the bios setup. Since you didn't suggest that my old data was lost forever I'm feeling more optimistic.
Tony

There's no reason your data would be lost unless you deliberately formatted over the drive, the drive failed, or the data was deleted.

More likely the drives need a letter in Disk Mgmt, or if that fails a setting change in BIOS.

You can also boot the Win7 disk or System Repair Disk to browse or rescue the data following Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console.

If your data is valuable then it should be backed up externally. A modern method is here to Sync, Backup and Store your Files to the Cloud with OneDrive.

To answer your points in order
The other sata drive/s do not appear in disk management. I have trolled through the bios set up and made a few changes but nothing lets me see the old drives. I don't see a bios set up field that tells me if I initially installed the SSD disk with uefi and legacy accepted but the MB book seems to suggest if I don't have CSM (and I don't) this will be the default setup.

I do have a back up covering text and pictures but there are all the other little progs you gather on the way including three linux distros. So I could wipe the SSD and install win 7 in legacy mode and hope that shows my old drives but do you have any other suggestions before resorting to pictures of the bios setup screens, please?
Tony

Please show us any BIOS setup settings choices for CSM, Legacy BIOS, UEFI, EFI and BIOS Boot order.

Also any settings for Storage.

Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums - Windows 7 Forums

Bios manual says csm only configurable for win 8 otherwise default is "enables UEFI CSM" CSM does not appear on bios screen
Boot mode is set to Uefi and legacy
Boot option 1 is set to Windows Boot Manager (P0: SATA SSD)
Storage Boot Option Control is set to Legacy first (other options are Disabled, UEFI only, Legacy only and UEFI first)
Other Pci Device Rom Priority is set to UEFI OpRom but could be set to Legacy Oprom.
OS Type set to Other OS, two alternatives are both Win 8
Last two fields which must be indications (cannot be selected) are
System Mode State---Setup
Secure Boot State-----Disabled.

I hope this gives you enough info to see my problem and thanks so much for your help so far.
Tony

How did you determine which port to plug in the OS drive versus the storage drives?

Refer to manual. Study correct settings for storage drives not intended to boot. These may not even need UEFI or legacy settings in your bios.

Try different ports.

If nothing helps then contact the mobo manufacturer tech-support as this appears to be a peculiarly of the UEFI firmware.

I can't put my hands on it at the moment but after reading all the bumpf that came with the barebones system from Novatech, I definitely recall there was a recommendation to install the OS on SATA port 0, There are 6 ports and 0 is the first of course. After the initial fumbling because of my unfamiliarity with UEFI I got win 7 64 installed and it's working fine but I can't see my old drives. I'll talk to Novatech tomorrow and report back.

Is there any reason why I shouldn't wipe the SDD, it's only 60 Gb after all, and install in Legacy mode? I would imagine that might fix the problem but it would be a shame to go backwards!
Tony