[RemixGamaah]

Hello,so today I got another Western Digital SATA 300gb HDD to add to my PC for storage, but when I enable it in the Bios I get a black screen with this text:

Serial ATA AHCI BIOS, Version iSrc 1.02.25 07222007
Copyright © 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
Copyright © 2006-2007 Dell, Inc.

Controller Bus#00, Devide#1f, Function#02: 02 ports. 02 Devices
_ <-- Eternally blinking



I have the Dell precision 490 workstation, but it is upgraded with a 3 ghz quad core Intel Xeon, a Sapphire HD 7770 GPU and 4gb of RAM.

Once I have enabled the HDD and this happens, I can't even get into boot menu or the Bios, I have to remove the HDD or connect it to another port to stop this happening.. but if I enable it on that port the same thing happens.

Thanks in advance!
Josh

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I will assume that you are running Windows 7; why do you feel it necessary to manually enable the hard drive in the BIOS? As long as Windows is booting off your C:\ drive, you should see the hard drive in Explore - Windows will automatically assign a drive letter to it, and you can set a partition and format in Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management.

[ranchhand3]

I will assume that you are running Windows 7; why do you feel it necessary to manually enable the hard drive in the BIOS? As long as Windows is booting off your C:\ drive, you should see the hard drive in Explore - Windows will automatically assign a drive letter to it, and you can set a partition and format in Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management.

[RemixGamaah]

I tried that.. It doesn't show up anywhere..

[ranchhand3]

Ok - so we are talking about a USB external drive here, not a drive installed in the case, right? There is no external drive that should be acting this way, they are in every sense "plug & play" hardware. You should simply plug in the USB cable and Windows should immediately recognize it and assign a drive letter. I will say that if you have the type that uses the USB connection for power supply, that could be your problem. That type gives a lot of problems because the USB really was not intended to supply that kind of power demand. However, if you have the type that has a separate power adapter that plugs into a 120V outlet (almost all USB externals are now), then I suggest returning it before the warranty expires. It's definitely acting dodgy, especially if you have no problems with your USB ports with anything else you plug in.

[RemixGamaah]

No, this is a drive installed inside the case, not an external.

[ranchhand3]

Ok, so you can see it listed in the BIOS screen but you cannot see it in Windows Explore?
I will assume this is a new SATA drive from a store, not an older IDE drive that you got somewhere. Correct me if I am wrong.
>Change the connection cables; I don't think that is the problem but let's cover everything.
>Change the data cable to a new slot in the motherboard in case the present one is dodgy.
>Go HERE, click the DOWNLOADS tab, select your operating system, and download Seatools for DOS (free); burn the ISO to a CD and boot with it in your driver. Make sure your computer is set to CD as First Boot Device in the CMOS. When the control screen appears, hopefully your hard drive will be listed, if so, select it. At the upper left corner in the dropdown menu select "Short Scan" (or words to that effect) and let it run. You will get a Pass or Fail notice. The advantage of this utility from Seagate (the hard drive manufacturer) is that it is loading from virtual so it is not dependent on Windows for loading. Your drive does not have to be a Seagate, this will test any drive - I use it all the time. If you get the message, "SMART has tripped, do you want to continue the test?" say yes.
If this utility does not list your drive, I suggest you return it immediately to where you purchased it before your warranty expires. Let us know the result after doing all the above.

Edited by ranchhand3, 27 September 2012 - 06:21 AM.

[RemixGamaah]

Thank you for the reply. This is a SATA drive and I've tried other cables. It still shows in the bios no matter what cable but not in explorer.

I will try that utility tool later tonight and will reply back after I try it.