New computer, "no drives were found," HDD not on BIOS

[Chalkman]

So, I just built my first computer, components below:

G.SKILL Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
Intel Core i5-3450 Ivy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.5GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core
GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Everything was working perfectly, until I tried installing Windows 7.

After meddling with the BIOS settings, I got the Windows to start installing. However, after the "installing features" part finished, the computer stopped. I waited for a few minutes before an error message appeared. I forgot to write down the error because I was tired and thought it would resolve itself. Yes, I am a moron.

Anyways, I restared the installation, but this time, I got the "No drives were found. Click load driver to provide a mass storage driver for installation." message. I looked up the solution and checked the BIOS, when, to my surprise, I could not find the SATA connection to my HDD.

I'm really quite stuck here, I tried all the combinations of SATA that I could, and still the HDD didn't show up. If anyone knows how to help, please let me know!

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Chalkman, Welcome to SF.
Please read the mobo manual and plug the sata cable to the target hard drive into sata port I (one). Make sure you have the power cable connected to the PSU. Please have all other sata connections removed except for the optical drive if it's a sata connection and then retry the clean install.

 

[gregrocker]

In addition if there is an EFI Boot Disk in BIOS Boot order, remove it and set DVD drive to boot first, then HD.

Then wipe the HD with Diskpart Clean Command.

 

[gregrocker]

In addition set SATA controller to AHCI to try install.

Check if you have an EFI BIOS, by looking for EFI Boot Disk in BIOS Boot Order to remove it.

If these fail wipe the HD using Diskpart Clean Command

 

[Chalkman]

Thanks, I'll try those out after work tomorrow.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Good, let us know what happens !

 

[Chalkman]

So, I checked the SATA connections, and found they were wrong. I fixed that part, but now there appears to be more problems.

The HD is still not showing up in the regular BIOS, but if I go to the boot menu, it appears first in the boot order. Right now, if I don't boot through the bot menu, I get the error BOOTMGR is missing. if I go through the boot menu and select the optical drive with Windows 7 OEM in it, I can boot correctly.

The HD now appears in the installation, but there is a problem as soon as I start the actual installation, during the first "copying files" part.

"Windows Setup could not reinitialize the deployment engine. To install Windows, restart the installation."

There is also this bad sounding whirring/ keening noise that I think is coming from my HD. Could this indicate a hardware problem with the HD?

All advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[gregrocker]

What do you mean the SATA connections "were wrong?" Explain.

If your HD is not showing up under storage device listings in BIOS then it's a problem no matter that it's listed in Boot order. Check the cables and connection, use SeaTools for DOS | Seagate recommended by Samsung Support to burn to CD to test HD with extended scan.

 

[James7679]

Do you have another HDD you can connect in place of your current primary? If so, power down, install the other hdd, clear the CMOS, enter BIOS, set Run Failsafe defaults, set hdd to run as AHCI, hit F10 then Y then enter. Go into the BIOS again and see if your drive is still there. If it is, your Samsung is bad, if it's not, well, just let us know the results.

 

[Chalkman]

The SATA connections were to the 2 and 3 ports, I changed the connection so the HDD is in port 1 and the optical is in port 0.

I'll run SeaTools tonight or tomorrow. Thanks.

I don't have another HDD to connect instead of my primary one. But thanks for the suggestion.

 

[gregrocker]

Try changing to another HD port to see if HD will register in BIOS, until you have tried them all.

 

[James7679]

Try changing to another HD port to see if HD will register in BIOS, until you have tried them all.

I believe, if I understood correctly, he already has, Greg.

I'm really quite stuck here, I tried all the combinations of SATA that I could, and still the HDD didn't show up.

My question about that, basically references Greg's suggestion, was the drive not showing in the BIOS, regardless of the SATA port, or was the drive not showing in the WIN7 install menu?

After meddling with the BIOS settings

Since we don't know the exact meaning of this statement, go ahead and clear the CMOS and load the fail safe defaults in the BIOS, save reboot and see if the drive will register in the BIOS.

 

[Pauly]

Does sound like the HDD is bad, im with gregrocker i would run HDD diagnostic SeaTools | Seagate if that doesnt see the disk then i would send it back for replacement

 

[Chalkman]

To answer the questions about what went wrong with the SATA, I had not realized that the SATA 3 ports (ports 1 and 0 on this mobo) looked radically different on this computer. I had tried all the other SATA connections, without the primary ones. derp.

I cleared the CMOS, and lo and behold, the HDD appeared! I tried to install Windows again, but it black screened after the first Windows is loading bar finished. I waited for about 10 min, and nothing happened, so I turned the computer off and tried to run SeaTools. That time, the boot failed, "BOOTMGR is missing. Press ctrl + alt + delete to restart."

Also, when I was changing the CDs, I confirmed that the whirring/ keening/ skipping noise was coming from the HDD. I'm pretty confused, because the HDD shows up in BIOS, but nothing can boot properly, and it still makes that awful noise.

 

[gregrocker]

That noise is never a good thing. You can check the connections and ports again but if it doesn't register in BIOS I would contact the manufacturer to RMA it if it's less than a year old, or replace it otherwise.

 

[Chalkman]

Well, its acting oddly. I just tried to boot it 3 times in a row, and my BIOS settings changed each boot, without me actually changing them.

The first time, I accessed BIOS to show my parents how it wasn't being recognized, when lo and behold, it showed up in the BIOS menu. I didn't change any SATA connections or anything. I tried to install Windows, and it failed just after I selected the partition of the HDD to use.

There were two errors, the first was "The file or directory D:\$Secure is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the ChkDsk utility." The second error was "Windows setup could not not reinitialize the deployment engine. To install Windows, restart the installation." Could this be a problem with the HDD, or does this mean my Windows 7 OEM might be damaged as well?

I restated the computer and accessed BIOS again, to make sure that there were no issues like IDE SATA connections instead of AHCI connections, but this time the HDD did not appear in the BIOS.

So the third time I put in the SeaTools, and go to the BIOS. There is no HDD. I exit and go to the boot menu, and the HDD shows up. I try to boot from the optical drive, but I get a BOOTMGR is missing error.

That noise is still present. I think that there is something wrong with the HDD, it only works for a part of the installation before if fail and the BIOS fails to recognize it. It's brand new, I think I'm going to return to to samsung/ seagate and get a new one.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Chalkman you may be on to something with the bad drive, it's too bad you don't have a spare hard drive of any capacity that you could test to see what it does. Keep in mind that if you really want to step up performance then replace that Seagate spinner and also look into a 60-128gb SSD drive as they have fallen in price like crazy. Clean install W7 and all essential software on the SSD and then all the data goes on the spinner. Then consider you back up plan to another internal or external drive later or look into a cloud back-up solution. I found that moving from my spinner to a SSD for this purpose has added to the enjoyment and productivity of my computer like nothing else that I've added or upgraded to. Just an FYI as you kind of starting over at this point anyway !

 

[Chalkman]

I'd honestly love to get an SSD, but I've already spent too much on this computer as it is! I need to save some spending money for college! The list of upgrades I want to make on this computer is quite long, and unfortunately, it will probably be 9 months before I can make any of them. I'll probably make the switch to SSD whenever a) my current hard drive dies AFTER its warranty expires, or b) whenever I need to upgrade to Windows 8. Until then, I'll stick with what I have right now.

Thanks for all the help, I'm going to return the current HDD today. I'll let you all know how well the replacement works.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Yeah totally understand and wish you better luck with the replacement drive. Here is my suggestion and you can see it's very modestly priced, this will hold all the OS and software for school and business you can throw at it, then regarding gaming place only your fav's here and the rest on the spinner and of course all data and even an image of the (C) drive SSD on the spinner.

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-64-2-...TF8&qid=1340461129&sr=8-3&keywords=crucial+m4

 

[gregrocker]

When you receive the new HD, everything is here to get a perfect Clean Reinstall including the latest official ISO with SP1 to save hours of updating.

If you have Student Upgrade version then you'll need to leave the Product Key blank during install, afterwards do option Three here to activate Upgrade version on a new HD: Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

If you saved a Win7 backup image you can apply it to the new HD.

Let us know if you need any help.