Solved New Hard Drive Not Recognized During Boot-Up or Windows 7 Installation

[Oh Great One]

Motherboard: ECS KM400-M2 (3.0) 462(A) VIA KM400 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
ECS Web Site > KM400-M2 (V3.0)

I just purchased a new hard drive to use for hosting, as I am creating a server computer. I took that old motherboard, put it in a new CoolerMaster Case, along with a new hard drive WD 500GB (7200rpm 32mb/mo). The motherboard is IDE and SATA, and the new hard drives only have SATA connections of course. So, I purchased a power supply SATA adapter and I have a SATA cable running to the motherboard in the first SATA spot (SATA 1 [total of 2 slots]). The BIOS does not tell you which hard drives are recognized, but it allows you to have an initial bootup of first/second/third. Options include HDD-0 HDD-1 and so on. SATA is enabled in the BIOS and when I boot up, it starts the DVD-ROM drive, and not my Hard Drive. I have the windows 7 installation disk in there anyways, and it boots that up. I go through the setup and once I get to the point where you pick a drive, my WD 500GB Hard Drive isn't displayed. I do a refresh, and I tried scanning for Hard Drives, and scanning for Hard Drives that wasn't compatible with the Hardware. Nothing showed up. So, now I am stumped.

 

[DocBrown]

Welcome Oh Great One

Try enabling the AHCI mode in the bios setup and see if it recognizes the WD HD that way. Also double check the Power connector & data cables and even try them on a different connection location.

Soon other members will join in to help you, also.

 

[Oh Great One]

How do I turn on ACHI mode? And I did double check the connections and tried them with other devices.

 

[DocBrown]

There should be a sub-menu in the Bios setup that lets you choose from several HD options,; IDE, SATA, ACHI, etc.

select ACHI, save settings, and reboot. see if HD is recognized in boot up screen. If you get a prompt NO operating system found / installed, then you will probably be able to boot win7 install DVD/or USB Stick.

 

[Oh Great One]

I will post a picture, give me a sec.

 

[Oh Great One]

Here is my BIOS settings. There is no section for ACHI.

EDIT: I don't know why they are sideways, I didn't take them sideways, sorry.

 

[DocBrown]

Seems like there is another Bios screen missing. Or did you not scrool or tab down to the bottom of the advanced screen as sometimes other options are available below the botton border of the screen.

 

[Oh Great One]

No, I scrolled through everything. These are all my main menu options.

 

[DocBrown]

Can we do screen shots of Integ. Periph.
PnP/PCI Conf
and the 1st one Stand. CMOS Features

 

[Anshad Edavana]

KM400-M2 is an old motherboard. I have seen old boards which are having difficulty to recognize new SATA 3GB/s or 6GB/s disks. They will recognize old 1.5 GB/s drives (SATA 1) happily. Since your HDD is a WD one, it may have an option to set the disk to SATA 1 compatibility mode.

An example :

In the above example, shorting pins 5 and 6 using a jumper will make the disk to enter in SATA 1 compatibility mode. Check if your HDD has a feature like that.

 

[Oh Great One]

One of the first top pictures is the: Integrated Peripherals>VIA OnChip IDE Device
Here is the menu for the Integrated Peripherals, PnP/PCI Config., and Standard CMOS Features.

 

[DocBrown]

What choices do you have when Press Enter for the "VIA OnChip IDE DEvice" ?

 

[Oh Great One]

KM400-M2 is an old motherboard. I have seen old boards which are having difficulty to recognize new SATA 3GB/s or 6GB/s disks. They will recognize old 1.5 GB/s drives (SATA 1) happily. Since your HDD is a WD one, it may have an option to set the disk to SATA 1 compatibility mode.



In the above example, shorting pins 5 and 6 using a jumper will make the disk to enter in SATA 1 compatibility mode. Check if your HDD has a feature like that.

I will check that out.

 

[Oh Great One]

What choices do you have when Press Enter for the "VIA OnChip IDE DEvice" ?

Here is the OnChip IDE Device Options.

 

[Oh Great One]

KM400-M2 is an old motherboard. I have seen old boards which are having difficulty to recognize new SATA 3GB/s or 6GB/s disks. They will recognize old 1.5 GB/s drives (SATA 1) happily. Since your HDD is a WD one, it may have an option to set the disk to SATA 1 compatibility mode.

An example :

In the above example, shorting pins 5 and 6 using a jumper will make the disk to enter in SATA 1 compatibility mode. Check if your HDD has a feature like that.

Will I need to change my SATA 2 data cable to SATA 1 then?

EDIT: Or will just a SATA 1 cable fix my problem?

 

[DocBrown]

Data cable should be basically the same. Did you get a manual with the motherboard ? It may have info about the AHCI setup menu.

 

[Oh Great One]

Data cable should be basically the same. Did you get a manual with the motherboard ? It may have info about the AHCI setup menu.

There is an online manual under the link on my first post. There is nothing in it with ACHI.

 

[DocBrown]

I just scanned the manual quickly, I don't see it either.

I have to get to bed now, My son & I have a 4 hr drive in the monring to look at a 1940 Plymoth DeLorean

I'll check in tomorrow afternoon or evening.

 

[Oh Great One]

Im heading to bed too, gotta be up in 7 hours for beach day and a date haha. I appreciate your help, talk to you soon! Have fun with your son!

 

[gregrocker]

The motherboard is IDE and SATA, and the new hard drives only have SATA connections of course. So, I purchased a power supply SATA adapter and I have a SATA cable running to the motherboard in the first SATA spot (SATA 1 [total of 2 slots]). The BIOS does not tell you which hard drives are recognized, but it allows you to have an initial bootup of first/second/third.

Plug the drive you want to install upon directly to SATA1 port alone.

The drive should be detected somewhere in BIOS setup, normally under SATA devices or in the BIOS Boot priority order. It may have its model or serial number to google. If it's not detected then it needs to be reinstalled until it is.

As Doc suggested set SATA controller (where you enabled SATA) to AHCI first to try it.