Resolved Wd 1.5t green hdd not working on my pc

Hi, I have just bought a WD caviar 1.5t sata II HDD for an up grade to my system, but hdd is not found!! even in BIOS. I have tried changing some BIOS options but no difference. Not really much I can change. I have now connected my old hdd back up and connected the WD HDD via a USB adaptor with an external power. WD drive is still not shown in MY COMPUTER but it is in SYSTEMS, MY DEVICES. I cannot assign a drive letter nor access the drive. When drive was connected via SATA connector on MB as main drive I loaded a floppy disc with DATA LIFEGUARD DIAGNOSTICS and run this at bootup, this came back saying there was no WD HDD to be found on system.
Is this HDD going to work with my MB, I know that it is SATA I on this board but there must be some work around.

Any Help greatly appreciated.


MB: ASUS A7N8X-E DELUXE
BIOS: 1012
RAM: 1.5GB
OS: XP PRO SP3

NEILMAC.....................

 

Hi, Thanks for reply. Original HDD is IDE. In device manager I found, NVIDIA nForce2 ATA Controller, thats all.
Hope this helps.

NeilMac...........

 

Ok, Have the system disc, there is a GUI folder and LINUX folder and other files, which and how do you extract the driver onto floppy disc. Have not done this for years.

NeilMac...........

 

Hi, Have tried to load drivers, with xp boot f6 then s reads floppy disk then comes back round to where it asked you to press s or enter again. You press s and the whole cycle starts over again, If you press Enter it loads some more from XP disc and then tells you there is no HDD.
If the HDD is not shown in BIOS how is any drivers or adapters going to make a difference.

Thanks

NeilMac........

 

Hi, Have tried the above, but then it comes up with the message that there is no HDD installed. You cannot go any further after that. The drive is not found in the BIOS.

NeilMac.............

 

Hi, Thanks for your help PeteC. After reading through loads of Forums regarding this MB, I upgraded the BIOS to Ver.1013. This made no difference. I had read an article about slipstreaming the BIOS latest version with Silicon Image latest Bios. I did this and copied to Floppy. Problem is when I try to update I get an error message, "BIOS IMAGE FILE CHECK SUM ERROR" "YOU CAN'T UPDATE THIS IMAGE FILE" "CHECK TO SEE IF FDD & HDD ERROR OCCURED" Any idea what the cause of this error could be. I have looked at numerous acrtiles regarding this error but none have really given me an answer.
May I point out that I am doing this upgrade with the old IDE hdd connected and not the new sata hdd.Thanks for any help.

NeilMac...........

 

If you are stuck you can get a SATA PCI controller card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...esult=True&SrchInDesc=sata&Page=1&PageSize=20
They can be a little finicky to set up, so don't get a cheap one (you want good set up instructions, etc). I used one for many years.

It sounds like you trying to upgrade the firmware of the SATA controller on the motherboard, you would need to be certain of the model number of the controller.

Are you using a pre-SP1 or SP1 version of the Windows CD? You might want to make a slip-streamed CD with SP3.

Have you tried running the WD utilities now that you upgraded the (motherboard) BIOS.

I might save the heart-ache and get a SATA controller card.

Matt

 

Hi, Thanks for the reply Mattman. I am using an XP pro with sp3 disc. I am using controller files that have been successfully by others with identical boards. I have also tried files from Silicon Image web site. I get the same result, just wont let me upgrade.
I have ordered a pci sata controller card, just one question, will it work as fast as the on-board controller.

Cheers

NeilMac..........

 

Just a thought.
Have you verified that the drive is OK?

Not unheard of to get one DOA.
Is there another SATA drive you can try.
Or this 1 on another computer.

 

The onboard controller will be SATA I, which is the same speed as IDE/PATA, so if it says SATA II you should expect more speed.

 

I've just thought of some thing(s). You could try making a smaller partition on the new drive, say maybe 950GB or even down to 500GB and see if it is recognised then. If you could work with two or three partitions, you could run it that way.

Have you checked the setup instructions for the drive at WD? It may have size limiting jumper settings. I have used those until I got my next motherboard.

The card should solve your problems though.

Matt

 

Hi, Yes drive is ok, have already partition it and formated by connecting via SATA to USB adaptercool:

NeilMac...............

 

Hi, Just seen your posting, drive has four partitions, primary is 700GB with smallest Logical being around 200GB. Could not find any jumper settings apart from the one for setting the drive for one partition.

NeilMac............

 

If you don't have any data on the drive, you could take the opportunity to get some experience in this area. The logical partitions may be still telling the BIOS it is 1.5TB, I would delete all of the partitions and just make one at 500GB. If that one is seen, you can work up from there.

If you have a blank HDD, you can do whatever you want with it. I would take that opportunity to do some testing and get some experience along the way.

Matt

 

have you enabled Serial ATA in your BIOS, I have a feeling that your BIOS is not set to see your new HD.
I have personally struggled I don't know how many times for hours to solve problems like what you are dealing with now.
This is my own personal opinion, I am no fan of PCI SATA controllers, I have had not much success with them unlike Matt (lucky man) I am still using my SATA - PATA adapter,
in your case simply connect the SATA drive to the correct SATA connector on the adapter and the other end to your IDE cable to your motherboard.
I am using this method using an IDE (PATA) HD to connect it to a SATA connection on the motherboard as my motherboard has only one IDE connector and I am using that for my optical drives.
Have a look here:

http://www.crazysales.com.au/ritmo-ide-to-sata-sata-to-ide-adapter-converter_p4315.html