Solved Bios see's sata drive but windows doesn't?

[0Gravity]

Hi All,
I have searched and tried several different things that are suggested to fix this problem, but can't figure it out..... I'm simply trying to add a extra storage drive to my HTPC and when I install the drive it's recognized in the bios, but when I start up windows 7 it says it's installing new hardware then comes up with the error "Hardware drivers could not be installed for your device" or something along that line..... and the drive shows up in device managers unknown devices with a yellow mark. I have tried two sperate drives a 1TB WD Blue and a 2TB Seagate both are Sata3 6g drives and my Motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H that has 6 sata3 ports.
Here's what I've tried
As I said 2 seperate drives, both reacted this same.
Tried different sata cables.
Tried going into disk management to make the disk usable BUT it is not listed there.
I used a Linux based "recovery tools" cd to boot the system (which BTW sees the drive just fine) to use the Seagate drive utility to partition the drive and format it NTFS.
I also read here to try uninstalling the drive controllers in the device manager and reboot and let windows set them back up.
Obviously.... None of this has worked, and I'm at the end of my wits here... lol
Any suggestions that you all can give me would be VERY appreciated!
Thanks!

 

[0Gravity]

Hmmm..... no suggestions?

 

[essenbe]

I would use Seatools for DOS, burn it to CD and boot from the CD and run both the short and long test to see if there are problems with the drive.

 

[0Gravity]

Thanks for the reply essenbe, I will give that a try, but I gotta wonder what the chances are that two separate brand new drives from different manufactures would have the exact same problem.... Also I did use a couple disk tools from within that Linux recovery tool CD to check the drives and they found no errors or problems, but I will try the seatool to check it again.
The again

 

[essenbe]

A surprising number of new drives arrive damaged. I think thanks to UPS or the Postal Service, but it does happen. I believe you said you changed cables, you may also consider changing sata ports on the board and check both ends of the data and power cables to make sure they are properly seated. I always prefer to use the manufacturer's drive diagnostic tool, although I do use others too. The manufacturer made the drive, so should know the specifics of exactly what to look for, but I also use other diagnostic tools too.

 

[0Gravity]

I agree with all you've said, and will give it a shot, but I am really leaning towards it being a problem within windows 7 or my build... Mainly because the drive is accessible from within every other environment I've tried it in.... I actually transferred files to and from it within a "mini xp" program on my recovery tools CD.
Also when I was swapping different cables I also tried different ports and they all see the drive the same way, just listed under the different port.
I really do appreciate and will try anything at this point to figure this out!

 

[essenbe]

Click the start button, type cmd in the search box, when the cmd entry appears, right click it and select run as administrator. In the box that appears type diskpart and press enter, it will take a few seconds, but the window will return and say diskpart. Type list disk and press enter. See if it sees your drive.

Also, do you have 2 sata controllers on that board listed in BIOS?

 

[0Gravity]

OK, in my quest to find an answer to this problem I have found a possible cause, but have no idea what to do about it... So here goes...
My original setup consisted of only two drives (one 1TB hard drive and a CD/DVD drive) connected to the data ports, but I now believe they were installed incorrectly, but still worked.
First, in the bios it was installed in ide mode instead of AHCI mode, also they were installed in ports so that the CD drive is listed in the bios as the "Master" and the Primary hard drive is listed as "Slave" my ports are marked on the board as Sata3_0 thru Sata3_5, The CD drive was installed in the Sata3_0 port and the Hard drive in the Sata3_2 port, I've read that the primary HDD should be in the very first data port which would be sata3_0....if I try to move the HDD to that port now it is then listed in the bios as the "master" but my system won't boot into windows!
Could this be what is causing my problems with installing the new drive and if so how do I fix it?
Thanks,
Mike

 

[essenbe]

You are usually better off with the OS drive in port 0, but it is not absolutely necessary. You usually get better performance on sata port 0 or 1. When you say IDE mode, is that the sata mode or are you using IDE connections? If they are both sata drives, (your CD and hard drive) I don't know why they are listed as Master/slave. If you installed in IDE sata mode, you cannot just change bios to AHCI or the computer will not boot. Are they connected with an IDE cable ot 2 sata cables? If sata you should have 2 cables, a data cable connected to the drive and motherboard and a sata power cable connected to the PSU. Which type drive and CD Drive do you have?

 

[0Gravity]

Diskpart only sees my original HD, not the one I am trying to install.

In not sure where to look for two controllers in bios, although nothing is jumping out at me BUT my Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H does actually have 8 sata ports 2 of which are marked GSata2_6 and _7 that I believe do use another controller of some kind, but I am not using those ports.

 

[0Gravity]

They are both sata drives with sata cables but were installed in sata-ide mode.... sorry for not clarifying that.

 

[essenbe]

Most bios's it will be listed as sata controllers in the advanced section, or it could be listed in something like on board connections. This is a sata drive and connections. Make sure they are connected securely on both ends. Here is a sata drive and the connections. The wide connection is the sata power connector and the narrow one is the sata data connection. Make sure they are both fully seated. The pictures have the drive right side up and the connections just have it turned over.

 

[essenbe]

They are both sata drives with sata cables but were installed in sata-ide mode.... sorry for not clarifying that.

That's OK. It is OK to install them in IDE mode. That should cause no problems. In bios, which drive is listed as 1st boot device? Set it to your hard drive and leave your controller in IDE mode for now. If you change the controller, the computer will not boot.

 

[0Gravity]

OK, the HDD is the 1st boot device, and both the data and power cable are seated properly.
Last night b4 going to a Halloween party I decided to try something, so I booted into that "mini xp" mode and used the Seagate drive tool to clone my original drive onto the new drive, when I got home I shut it down and swapped drives out, it booted into windows fine, did the whole "installing new device" routine which ended up failing again and listing the new drive in device manager as an "unknown device"... but I could see the whole 2TB volume in file manager... UNTIL...I rebooted... Then the system refuses to boot into windows until I reinstall the original HD! I just don't get it and it is really starting to piss me off...lol

 

[DocBrown]

Try running Startup Repair from the install DVD 3 separate times with just the new HD as the 1st boot device. All other HD's disconnected. It sounds like you have boot files linked accross different HD's.

 

[0Gravity]

I ended up having to do a fresh install of windows to fix my problem, I must have had some corrupt files!
Thanks for the suggestions to try to help with this!