[mboy12]

Hi I just got a new 250 gb hard drive. the one I currently have is 40 gb. I figured power would be an issue so I upgraded the PSU. The hard drive will work as a slave drive when I place it in a hard drive enclosure, I was able to copy files onto it. When I plug it into my computer as the master drive I always get a message saying no hard drive found. I have formatted it and tried it on several computers in an attempt to load windows onto it but i still get the same message. On one computer in began the windows set up and at the point the computer restarts i got the same no hard drive found message. is it possible the hard drive doesn't function properly anymore, or is it still not getting enough power or is there some step im missing?

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Some basic steps to verify:

First:
Is it and IDE hd or a SATA hd? If a IDE hd be sure the jumpers are set correctly, Master/Slave if more then one or cable select or Master if only one hd connected.

If Sata hd be sure you have your BIOS set to boot from this hd.

Second:
Verify if your BIOS is detecting the hd


Third:
Check your BIOS setting to have your cd/dvd as the first boot then hd as the second boot (if your installing Windows)

[Alzeimer]

Some basic steps to verify:

First:
Is it and IDE hd or a SATA hd? If a IDE hd be sure the jumpers are set correctly, Master/Slave if more then one or cable select or Master if only one hd connected.

If Sata hd be sure you have your BIOS set to boot from this hd.

Second:
Verify if your BIOS is detecting the hd


Third:
Check your BIOS setting to have your cd/dvd as the first boot then hd as the second boot (if your installing Windows)

[mboy12]

Some basic steps to verify:

First:
Is it and IDE hd or a SATA hd? If a IDE hd be sure the jumpers are set correctly, Master/Slave if more then one or cable select or Master if only one hd connected.

It is an IDE hd and it is the only drive installed.

Second:
Verify if your BIOS is detecting the hd

the Bios is not detecting the hard drive. it detects the the smaller hard drive every time. i attempted several other ide cables and psu plugs to be sure but it made no difference. I changed the boot sequence to load cd first but since hard drive isn't detected made no difference in windows setup.the hard drive is a western digital wd2500jb, the motherboard is a netvista 8307ufq. according to the manual it is a PATA hard drive, would that make a difference since in since my mother board is IDE?

Edited by mboy12, 02 February 2011 - 05:12 PM.

[DaffyKantReed]

If the hard drive is an IDE Western Digital and it's the Master at the black end of the ribbon cable, you will need to set the jumper[s] accordingly.

http://wdc.custhelp....(model-wd2500jb,

Edited by DaffyKantReed, 03 February 2011 - 02:06 AM.

[SpywareDr]

If the computer is really old, the problem may be due to a drive size limitation: http://en.wikipedia....ize_limitations

[Alzeimer]

If your BIOS is not detecting your HD but it works in an enclosure as a slave drive it might be the jumper settings the problem, some HD are very specific about their setup, single drive or multiple drives settings.

This is the jumper setting for your HD which is suppose to be a 10 pins jumper layout.

[attachment=47615:jumper 2.PNG]

Hope that will help.

[nciuro]

All my external drives (4) are set as CABLE SELECT.
But you should see your drives in the Bios before anything else.
Check your HD pin setting.
On the other hand..why having an external HD as a main drive? That will slow your computer.

[mboy12]

I finally got it to work but even im not sure how,I changed the IDE ribbon and played with some of the setting in the BIOS and formatted again. I was able to install windows on it and everything, but now something strange happens. If i restart the computer it again is not detected. If i then go into the bios and go devices,IDE drives setup and change the set up to "primary" and restart, it is detected. If i then would restart again the same thing would happen but this time I would change the setup to "both". when it is detected the drive appears in the bios with its memory size so im not sure limitation would be a problem. any idea why it would do this? Im a little confused about the pin setup,how dos that work exactly?

[nciuro]

Wonder if you solve this problem?
Theres no information on the drives brand.
Western Digital and Seagate have specific instructions set on their sites to set-up and install any of their hard disk.
My experience is that after using a drive as an external unit, I have to format the drive to use it as an internal drive.
Also, for how long you use the drive as an external drive?
One of my external drives was behaving as yours and suddenly went of...forever!!
Did your hard drive receive any bump?
NCR

[SpywareDr]

I finally got it to work but even im not sure how,I changed the IDE ribbon and played with some of the setting in the BIOS and formatted again. I was able to install windows on it and everything, but now something strange happens. If i restart the computer it again is not detected. If i then go into the bios and go devices,IDE drives setup and change the set up to "primary" and restart, it is detected. If i then would restart again the same thing would happen but this time I would change the setup to "both". when it is detected the drive appears in the bios with its memory size so im not sure limitation would be a problem. any idea why it would do this? Im a little confused about the pin setup,how dos that work exactly?

If the CMOS/BIOS is not saving your changes, it could be because of a flaky/dead CMOS battery. Most of the time the battery is a CR2032. They usually run a couple of bucks at your nearest drug or grocery store.