Windows does not see HDD

[glennicus]

No, I the SSD that houses the OS is also connected via SATA.

 

[sygnus21]

With all due respect please read the thread befor posting. Some of you are suggesting the same things that has already been discussed.

Anyways @ glennicus, sounds like you have a controller issue. Might want to give that BIOS a good look over.

which suggests that it isn't enabled. But I don't see how to enable it.

What model and make is your MB? Can you post a link.

Thanks.

 

[sygnus21]

Out of curiousity... does the SSD drive have a jumper pin?

 

[neo101]

Thank you Cloud8521, but I don't see the drive under Disk Management. Windows has not in any way detected my drive, although it does appear in the BIOS.

Once again, as you have been told but do not seem to understand - the computer can't see your hard drive because it is not 'formatted' (only at base level) and has no boot sector written on it.

Stick your Win7 disk in and format it - make sure you disconnect any other hard drives first so you don't make a mistake.

Another way to do it is go to Western Digital website, download their utility and format/partition to hearts content!

 

[glennicus]

Neo101, I do realize that, but the drive simply is not available to be formatted. The drive does not appear as an option via either the Windows 7 disc or the Western Digital format utility.

Sygnus21, the motherboard I'm using is an MSI X58 Platinum. MSI Global – Computer, Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Mainboard, Graphics and more

The SSD does not have a jumper pin, either.

I do appreciate all of the help.

 

[DocBrown]

From the link you gave, it looks like your MB has 8 Sata port connections. They are numbered on th MB. Which drives do you have connected to which numbered port? Is your DVD drive Sata or IDE ?

 

[sygnus21]

Once again, as you have been told but do not seem to understand - the computer can't see your hard drive because it is not 'formatted' (only at base level) and has no boot sector written on it

neo101, If you read the entire thread, you'd have an understanding of why the OP can't format his drive.

Another way to do it is go to Western Digital website, download their utility and format/partition to hearts content!

Hmmm.... link??? (for Windows 7)


@ glennicus,

Looking at your MB manual, you have 8 SATA ports, try switching you HD to another port, but make sure you're not hooked up to ports 7 & 8. (pg 2-15)

BTW I would suggest you look through your manual for BIOS settings. Have a look at page 3-6. If you don't have the manual download it here - MSI Global – Computer, Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Mainboard, Graphics and more

Good luck

 

[neo101]

Doc has got the right idea for a possible solution!

You can ONLY use certain Sata connections for hard drives - the rest are for slower DVDs etc. Check yer manual!

I presume you have West Digital Blue 3Gps SSD sata drive - is there an extra 'bios' setting to enable flash drives to work? Normally 'AHCI' setting!

 

[neo101]

Hmmm.... link??? (for Windows 7)


[/QUOTE]

Advanced Format Hard Drive Download Utility

 

[sygnus21]

Hmmm.... link??? (for Windows 7)

Advanced Format Hard Drive Download Utility[/QUOTE]

Please read what you lined to.

WD Advanced Format drives are specifically optimized for Mac and the latest Windows operating systems such as Windows Vista and Windows 7 with a clean install. Advanced Format Technology is being adopted by WD and other drive manufacturers to increase media format efficiency, thus enabling larger drive capacities.

Using your WD Advanced Format Hard Drive with a Windows Operating System may require you to run the WD Align Windows software utility after you install your operating system or partition and format the drive as a secondary drive. The WD Align software aligns existing partitions on the Advanced Format drive to ensure it provides full performance for certain configurations. (Please see table for configuration details)

What this says is WD has certain hard drives that use an Advanced format algorithm. That this algorithm is ALREADY optimized for Vista and Window 7. If you're running Window XP, than you would need to use the WD Align utility.

In short, this "tool" you lined to DOES not format the hard drive. There's nothing to be done, and the hard drive would still need to be formatted.

Please read this on WD's advanced format drives... Exploring WD's Advanced Format HD Technology - HotHardware Note that the hard drive says "Advanced Format Drive"

Also this.... http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/WhitePapers/ENG/2579-771430.pdf

The drive the OP has IS NOT an Advanced Format drive.

What models utilize Advanced Format technology?
Some models of the WD Caviar Green and WD Scorpio Blue product families are built using Advanced Format technology. Over time more models and capacities will be added. WD drives with Advanced Format technology include special installation information on the drive label so be sure to read the label on your drive before installing it.

Thanks.

 

[neo101]

Scrapped due to total confusion

 

[sygnus21]

He did mention he has a Caviar black.

 

[neo101]

He did mention he has a Caviar black.

lol he did TOO!

And the SSD is a blue?

WOULD HAVE BEEN FAR SIMPLER JUST TO POST

"Win 7 can't see my new Sata? Caviar Black 2TB/1TB drive"

As I own three of the things - one was D.O.A. when sent to me - just a possiblity!

Carry on

 

[neo101]

So I need to find a way to manually initialize the HDD?

Thank you all for your help.

Western Digital
Punters guide on how to do it

Windows 7

Note: This procedure is for adding a new blank hard drive to your computer, or a drive that you have done a Write Zero's to, using our Data LifeGuard Diagnostics software.
Occasionally, a hard drive may not be detected by a computer running Windows 7. If that is the case, you may need to initialize (write a signature to) the drive. The drive could be a newly purchased internal drive or an internal/external drive that you have done a Write Zeros to. If your drive is not detected by Windows 7 when you check Computer or Windows Explorer, follow the steps below.

1. Right-click on the Computer icon on the desktop or in the Start Menu.
2. Left-click on Manage.
3. Left-click on Disk Management.
4. Usually, the Initialize Disk Wizard will appear automatically when you open Disk Management. If you have more than one blank drive that needs to be initialized it will list them. Make sure that there is a check in the box of the drive that needs to be initialized and then left-click on the Ok button. If the wizard does show up, go to step 5. If the wizard does not show up, please see the note and additional images directly below.

See the diagrams/rest here (it may give you a bit more info on how to suss it)
How to initialize or write a signature to a secondary hard drive or Solid State drive in Windows (7, Vista, XP, 2000)

Other than that
need to set jumper on motherboard/in bios for 3Gbs compatability,
check rear of hard drive pin jumper correct for setting 3GB/s
try different sata connector on m/board
try different sata? lead

 

[glennicus]

Thank you all for your interest in my problem.

I believe that the problem is the SATA connectors that I've been using. Without giving it much thought, I merely plugged these two drives into the slots occupied by the drives that failed. Those drives were in a RAID configuration and definitely occupied slots 7 and 8. This never occurred to me, and I'm sorry that I didn't read through the motherboard manual. I'm going to crack the case again and switch slots.

 

[glennicus]

Yep, that was the problem, and it is now solved. As soon as I switched the SATA jacks, I was able to format the drive without any trouble. As you can tell, I'm a complete amateur, and it simply never occurred to me that something like that could be the problem.

Thank you all so very much for the time you've put into solving this for me.

 

[sygnus21]

I'm glad we were able to help solve it.

Thanks, and good luck

Peace

 

[neo101]

Glad we got you to a solution & thanks for getting back