Windows 7 Doesn't Detect My Hard Drive

[eIIison]

Here's my hard drive:
Seagate Constellation ES ST3500514NS

I haven't been able to get Windows 7 installation to detect this drive for about two months now. I'm running on a Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H mobo, revision 2.1.

I recently found a list of drivers for my motherboard on Gigabyte, but I'm not sure if any of these will help me.
I also found some downloads for my hard drive.

Oh, and I can use this drive if I'm running Windows 7 on a different hard drive, but I just can't install Windows 7 on it.

 

[DeanP]

Check if the new HDD is being detected in BIOS. Also, the HDD may be formatted as a file system not supported for Windows. Make sure it is formatted as NTFS.

 

[eIIison]

Check if the new HDD is being detected in BIOS. Also, the HDD may be formatted as a file system not supported for Windows. Make sure it is formatted as NTFS.

It's detected in BIOS and it's also formatted in NTFS.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello eIIison, welcome to Seven Forums!


The info below may be a help to you, power down the PC and disconnect all HDDs except the target HDD, connect that to the #1 SATA port of the motherboard and set it as the second boot device after the CD/DVD drive in the BIOS then boot the Windows 7 installation DVD to do the wipe and complete the installation process and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

   Information

I would suggest, after you have copied out or made back-ups of the data you need to save to external media, use Step One of this tutorial at the link below to do a wipe (secure erase) to the entire Hard Disk Drive, running this then using the outline in Step Two #2 to create/format and mark Active a single 100GB partition using diskpart will get you the best possible space to clean install Windows 7 to.

After you have made backups of everything you care to save and you want to do a real wipe "clean all" to the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) it over-writes everything, all the old Windows code including all the old Windows drivers, giving you the best possible space to install Windows 7 to; it goes hand-in-hand with a clean install.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

DISKPART : At PC Startup

How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7

​

 

[Mark Phelps]

Not trying to drive you away (since the tech support here is excellent!), but I recently built a new system using a similar Gigabyte board -- and I found their forum support to also be excellent. Their support staff actually read the posts and get back to you, usually within the same day, with specific suggestions.

Their forum is located at: Official GIGABYTE Forum - Index

 

[gregrocker]

Besides wiping the HD as suggested by Barefoot Kid, make sure you have the latest BIOS verison - if so, reset the CMOS: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

While in BIOS setup, check the SATA controller setting: set to AHCI first, then IDE mode if install fails.

Test the HD using Seatools extended CD test. SeaTools | Seagate