[cru80s]

Hi All,
We have a Dell Dimension 8400 which had a SATA hard drive running XP home.
Decided to update to Windows 7 by adding a new additional SATA hard drive.
I disconnected the old hard drive first while doing the installation of the O/S.

All Ok untill I turned off and reconnected the original hard drive to another SATA port.
The system ( Windows 7) does not recognise the original hard drive, can't find it!

I then swapped the SATA cables then it booted into XP, same result, can't see the new drive.

I checked the BIOS and could not find anything to enable the other drive.
Although I did go through to Drives test within the BIOS and again could only see one drive.
It is always the one that is connected to the lower SATA port number.

I'm wondering if I should of left the old drive connected when installing Windows 7?
I selected Custom so I could point it to the drive I wanted but I just thought it would be safer to disconnect the original O/S and hard drive to isolate the data from being deleted accidentally.

Any ideas please!

[cru80s]

So both Hard drives will in fact have a MBR, is this the problem?

[Alzeimer]

First thing you should check is that your BIOS sees both drive when they are connected, if BIOS does not see it Windows (whatever the version) will not see it either.

[cru80s]

Alzeimer, on 28 July 2010 - 06:49 AM, said:

First thing you should check is that your BIOS sees both drive when they are connected, if BIOS does not see it Windows (whatever the version) will not see it either.

Thanks Alzeimer,
No it only shows one drive in the BIOS, which ever is attached to SATA port 0.

In the BIOS I see there is a setting to change Drive Controller setting from RAID Autodetect/AHCI to RAID Autodetect/ATA is this applicable?

[Alzeimer]

What is the model of your motherboard

[cru80s]

Alzeimer, on 28 July 2010 - 03:57 PM, said:

What is the model of your motherboard

Dell Dimension 8400 Generic motherboard.
Can't find any more details than that sorry.

[Alzeimer]

In your BIOS go to the menu for DRIVES/DRIVE CONTROLLER and set your bios to RAID Autodetect/ATA

If this does not work try putting your 2nd Hard Drive in a different SATA Port (think your model as 4 of them)

Also you should check if the SATA Cable you are unsing for the 2nd hard drive is not damage and working.

[Alzeimer]

Sorry for the multiple post but ever since the new changes here at GTG I have been having problem posting, before would not post at all and now it posts them even after i got an Timeout message.

[cru80s]

Alzeimer, on 29 July 2010 - 03:07 AM, said:

In your BIOS go to the menu for DRIVES/DRIVE CONTROLLER and set your bios to RAID Autodetect/ATA

If this does not work try putting your 2nd Hard Drive in a different SATA Port (think your model as 4 of them)

Also you should check if the SATA Cable you are unsing for the 2nd hard drive is not damage and working

Thanks I'll give that a go, I'm away with work at the moment and won't get to attempt this untill next Tuesday.
Is there any chance it can delete the Data on either drive?

If the PC wont boot I guess I'll just need to change back to RAID Autodetect/ACHI and look for another answer.

Thanks again

[diabillic]

Bring up Disk Management, see if it shows up there.

Also, Dell disables all additional SATA ports in the BIOS by default besides SATA0. Verify the port is turned on.

[cru80s]

diabillic, on 30 July 2010 - 02:04 PM, said:

Bring up Disk Management, see if it shows up there.

Also, Dell disables all additional SATA ports in the BIOS by default besides SATA0. Verify the port is turned on.

Yes that was going to be my first item to check thanks, How do you check / turn the additional Dell SATA ports on?

[diabillic]

cru80s, on 31 July 2010 - 12:04 AM, said:

diabillic, on 30 July 2010 - 02:04 PM, said:

Bring up Disk Management, see if it shows up there.

Also, Dell disables all additional SATA ports in the BIOS by default besides SATA0. Verify the port is turned on.

Yes that was going to be my first item to check thanks, How do you check / turn the additional Dell SATA ports on?

I believe its delete to enter the BIOS when you turn on the machine.

[cru80s]

diabillic, on 02 August 2010 - 08:01 AM, said:

cru80s, on 31 July 2010 - 12:04 AM, said:

diabillic, on 30 July 2010 - 02:04 PM, said:

Bring up Disk Management, see if it shows up there.

Also, Dell disables all additional SATA ports in the BIOS by default besides SATA0. Verify the port is turned on.

Yes that was going to be my first item to check thanks, How do you check / turn the additional Dell SATA ports on?

I believe its delete to enter the BIOS when you turn on the machine.

Press F2, had that downpat
Yes I found under "Drives" select SATA 1 and enter / turn on.
That fixed it.
Thank you both for the help.

[tommyriggs]

i have the same issue ,, somewhat,,, however both my drives show up in the BIOS setup utility but the sata drive is gone as far as the os is concerned... it was running windows 7 utlimate on the sata as the primary, and an IDE drive cloned exaclty the same.... one day after a windows update the sata drive disapeared ,,, i have tried a repiar install on the sata drive but windows set up is not seeing it ,, only the IDE .... further more any reinstall of the promise raid drivers that came default on the system fails ..... what gives.....