[downlowder]

Yes, I am a complete noob to the whole building a PC thing, but I have done my reading and research, and know my way around a computer pretty well...but I cannot figure out this problem. Any help or advice would be appreciated.


I hope/assume this problem is related to the fact that I bought an OEM SATA II hard drive, and it needs some sort of pre-install preparation of which I am unaware. My BIOS recognizes the drive, but when I try to install Windows Vista (64-bit), it tells me that it doesn't see a drive. Some forums seem to think that I need to download a driver somehow, though hard drive drivers don't appear to be available on Hitachi's site or for any other hard drive manufacturer, as they claim windows contains drivers for all hard drives. Other forums seem to think that because I bought an OEM hard drive, the problem is due to the fact that it is not formatted or somehow other prepared pre-install. If this is the solution I have another problem, as I don't have another computer into which to plug the drive for reformatting. I thought the BIOS would automatically pick up the drive and format it though? Is this not so?


Also of note is the fact that if I turn on the PC and let it run through the Gigabyte motherboard's splash screen (or hit Tab to go to "POST," it briefly displays the screen I'm expecting to see for a split second, then goes immediately into listing all the devices plugged into the motherboard, then hangs at "Verifying DMI data" or something like that. Then I have to to turn it off and restart to get it to do anything.


I have flashed the BIOS and cleared the CMOS. Neither have helped.


I have tried changing about every setting in the BIOS short of using RAID or AHCI.


Does anyone have any advice or ideas? Sorry for the long winded question.


Apevia X-Master Case w/ built-in power supply

GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3HP motherboard

AMD 5050e CPU

OCZ Reaper 2x2 Dual Channel

Samsung Writemaster DVDRW

HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000 HDS721010KLA330 (0A35155) 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

 

[kciaccio]

Did you format the drive? You have to format through the os.

 

[benjamin.r]

I don't think you need to "prepare" the drive, as the installer of windows will format it for you prior to copying the files. The only thing I can think of is that you configured the drive to be in a RAID array (in your MB BIOS) and you must then supply a driver for RAID. Or your drive is defective.


Did you try these:


- In your BIOS, load the default or optimized settings.

- In your BIOS, disable RAID.

- Plug the drive in another SATA connector on your MB

 

[downlowder]



Quote:
Originally Posted by benjamin.r /forum/post/15496133


I don't think you need to "prepare" the drive, as the installer of windows will format it for you prior to copying the files. The only thing I can think of is that you configured the drive to be in a RAID array (in your MB BIOS) and you must then supply a driver for RAID. Or your drive is defective.


Did you try these:


- In your BIOS, load the default or optimized settings.

- In your BIOS, disable RAID.

- Plug the drive in another SATA connector on your MB

I have tried every one of those things. No luck. The BIOS recognizes when I have changed the HD to a different connector.


I tend to think the drive isn't defective because the motherboard recognizes the drive.


Stupid question I just thought of, but I better ask...You don't have to use both power plugs on the SATA drive, right?...I'm just using the new school one right next to the SATA 3.0 Gb/s connector.

 

[downlowder]



Quote:
Originally Posted by kciaccio /forum/post/15496020


Did you format the drive? You have to format through the os.

It's a new build. No OS yet. The OS won't install because the Vista installer won't recognize the drive.

 

[downlowder]

Another possibility that I am dreading...see the following question I asked earlier:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...744&highlight=


Well, before I read the responses, I did what I mentioned in that thread. Could that have drastically messed up my motherboard (or hard drive)?


Pretty dumb, I know, but I figured I might as well try it..."what could be the harm in trying?" :shakeshead


Oy.

 

[benjamin.r]



Quote:
Originally Posted by downlowder /forum/post/15496354


Another possibility that I am dreading...see the following question I asked earlier:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...744&highlight=


Well, before I read the responses, I did what I mentioned in that thread. Could that have drastically messed up my motherboard (or hard drive)?


Pretty dumb, I know, but I figured I might as well try it..."what could be the harm in trying?" :shakeshead


Oy.

No it didn't mess up your HDD nor your MB. Don't worry

 

[rjburke377]



Quote:
Originally Posted by downlowder /forum/post/15496354


Another possibility that I am dreading...see the following question I asked earlier:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...744&highlight=


Well, before I read the responses, I did what I mentioned in that thread. Could that have drastically messed up my motherboard (or hard drive)?


Oy.

Yes, you can damage components my mis-wiring the cable to your drives. If one device is trying to drive a signal high (current source) and another device is doing the opposite (current sink) then you may have caused a short.


I know you say you tried everything but panic may have set in

Try this:


1. Unplug the IDE cable from the MB and only have the new drive plugged into the first SATA port (turn off power first, of course).

2. Cycle power to your computer and go into the BIOS. Verify your ports are set to IDE (not RAID and not AHCI ... though AHCI should work too).

3. If there is a setting that says "Enhanced IDE" then that should be cool too.

4. If your BIOS has a hard drive boot priority option then make certain your device is listed (and selected as the highest priority).

5. If your BIOS has a boot priority option then choose: floppy, cd, hard disk.


Save any changes then cycle power. Go back into the BIOS and verify your changes.


If the hard disk isn't available in the BIOS then windows will never see it as an installation option. Time to RMA the drive. Don't mention your IDE cable experiment.


By the way, I have 5 of those Hitachi drives. They work fine in Windows. The OEM advice is a red herring. So is the "you need a driver" discussion.


/R

 

[benjamin.r]



Quote:
Originally Posted by downlowder /forum/post/15496226


I have tried every one of those things. No luck. The BIOS recognizes when I have changed the HD to a different connector.


I tend to think the drive isn't defective because the motherboard recognizes the drive.


Stupid question I just thought of, but I better ask...You don't have to use both power plugs on the SATA drive, right?...I'm just using the new school one right next to the SATA 3.0 Gb/s connector.

No just use one power connector. So plug in your SATA data connector (the small one) and your SATA power connector (the bigger one, "new school") OR use the old molex power connector.


Also, even if you see the drive in the BIOS, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's not defective.


What I would do now is take that drive to another computer that's running Windows, plug it in and see if it's able to see it and format it.

 

[downlowder]



Quote:
Originally Posted by rjburke377 /forum/post/15497091


Yes, you can damage components my mis-wiring the cable to your drives. If one device is trying to drive a signal high (current source) and another device is doing the opposite (current sink) then you may have caused a short.


I know you say you tried everything but panic may have set in

Try this:


1. Unplug the IDE cable from the MB and only have the new drive plugged into the first SATA port (turn off power first, of course).

2. Cycle power to your computer and go into the BIOS. Verify your ports are set to IDE (not RAID and not AHCI ... though AHCI should work too).

3. If there is a setting that says "Enhanced IDE" then that should be cool too.

4. If your BIOS has a hard drive boot priority option then make certain your device is listed (and selected as the highest priority).

5. If your BIOS has a boot priority option then choose: floppy, cd, hard disk.


Save any changes then cycle power. Go back into the BIOS and verify your changes.


If the hard disk isn't available in the BIOS then windows will never see it as an installation option. Time to RMA the drive. Don't mention your IDE cable experiment.


By the way, I have 5 of those Hitachi drives. They work fine in Windows. The OEM advice is a red herring. So is the "you need a driver" discussion.


/R

I appreciate the response. I have already done every step you mentioned. Still no luck. To clarify however, the hard drive IS available in the BIOS (and is set to primary, IDE, etc.), and the boot order is as you mentioned, but Windows still doesn't see it.


When I get home I will try to install on another sata drive that I had laying around, though I fear that one might have the same problems, as it was also connected to the board during my little expirement.


So you think it is the drive, rather than the motherboard? Would my little experiment possibly have shorted out the SATA ports on the motherboard (even though the experiment was with the IDE cables)?

 

[Xilpaxim]

Maybe it needs to be mounted? I don't know how Vista does that.

 

[downlowder]



Quote:
Originally Posted by benjamin.r /forum/post/15497092


No just use one power connector. So plug in your SATA data connector (the small one) and your SATA power connector (the bigger one, "new school") OR use the old molex power connector.


Also, even if you see the drive in the BIOS, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's not defective.


What I would do now is take that drive to another computer that's running Windows, plug it in and see if it's able to see it and format it.

I would love to do this, but I don't have any other computers, much less any with SATA II ports. Woe is me.

 

[kapone]

whoa....lots of issues!


Going by your description of the issues, I'm getting a feeling you haven't built a PC before. (Don't take this the wrong way..it is what it is. Building a PC, while simple on paper, is never really that simple in practice).


First things first.


- Turn off the power to your motherboard, remove the power cable (from the PSU to the wall socket) physically from the power supply.

- Remove every single IDE or SATA device connected to your motherboard.

- Clear your CMOS and do a BIOS reset.

- Connect the SATA "power" connector (since this is the one you have) to this hard drive.

- Connect a SATA data cable from the hard drive to the first SATA port on your motherboard. (Even if you connect it to a different one, it probably won't cause issues).

- Connect your power cable back to the PSU and fire up your system.


At this point, your motherboard SHOULD recognize the SATA hard drive, it will go through the boot sequence, you should see the hard drive listed as one of the hard drives in the IDE devices list that pops up during boot, it will finish the boot sequence, list all the PCI devices, update the DMI data, it should NOT hang at that point, and it will try to boot from that hard drive, since that's the only drive connected to your motherboard at this point.


Since there's no OS on the drive, it should display an error to say "Invalid Boot device" or something similar.


If all this happens, and you get to this point, your hard drive/hard drive connections/motherboard boot is working fine.


Try this and report back, then we'll go to the next step.

 

[downlowder]



Quote:
Originally Posted by kapone /forum/post/15497864


whoa....lots of issues!


Going by your description of the issues, I'm getting a feeling you haven't built a PC before. (Don't take this the wrong way..it is what it is. Building a PC, while simple on paper, is never really that simple in practice).


First things first.


- Turn off the power to your motherboard, remove the power cable (from the PSU to the wall socket) physically from the power supply.

- Remove every single IDE or SATA device connected to your motherboard.

- Clear your CMOS and do a BIOS reset.

- Connect the SATA "power" connector (since this is the one you have) to this hard drive.

- Connect a SATA data cable from the hard drive to the first SATA port on your motherboard. (Even if you connect it to a different one, it probably won't cause issues).

- Connect your power cable back to the PSU and fire up your system.


At this point, your motherboard SHOULD recognize the SATA hard drive, it will go through the boot sequence, you should see the hard drive listed as one of the hard drives in the IDE devices list that pops up during boot, it will finish the boot sequence, list all the PCI devices, update the DMI data, it should NOT hang at that point, and it will try to boot from that hard drive, since that's the only drive connected to your motherboard at this point.


Since there's no OS on the drive, it should display an error to say "Invalid Boot device" or something similar.


If all this happens, and you get to this point, your hard drive/hard drive connections/motherboard boot is working fine.


Try this and report back, then we'll go to the next step.

I appreciate your response. I think I did mention that I was new to this, however, I have done all the steps you mentioned several times. I would point out, though, that the drive does appear in the BIOS, but the Windows install CD doesn't see it, and it still hangs. The "invalid boot device" message never occurs.


To be clear, it only hangs (I assume) when trying to boot from that hard drive (though it doesn't mention that's what it's doing). I've booted from DVD and USB (unsuccessfully attempting that driver install), and it has either succesfully started the boot or given me an error mesage.

 

[Calcvictim]

1)go here
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/M...ProductID=2943

2)download, and follow the included instructions

AMD SATA RAID Driver (Preinstall driver)

O.S. : Windows Vista x86 (32-bit),Windows Vista x64 (64-bit)

3)enjoy

 

[downlowder]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Calcvictim /forum/post/15498271


1)go here
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/M...ProductID=2943

2)download, and follow the included instructions

AMD SATA RAID Driver (Preinstall driver)

O.S. : Windows Vista x86 (32-bit),Windows Vista x64 (64-bit)

3)enjoy

I tried that late last night, and I'm sure I didn't do it right. I don't see any instructions anywhere. I downloaded the file to a flash drive, plugged it into my build, turned it on, changed the boot order to use the USB HDD first, and it gave me an error saying "unrecognized system disc, please remove, then press any key to continue.


I also tried telling the windows install to browse to that location when it asked if I wanted to supply a driver, but it didn't recognize the file.


How does one properly import that driver pre-install?


Edit:


Ahhhhhhhhhhhh...I saw that the file was an .exe file, so I assumed it was the driver itself, rather than an application that would extract the driver.


Truthfully, I still don't know for sure how to install it. Will booting from the flash drive work?

 

[Calcvictim]

you have to download that software and run it on a computer, this will put all the needed files onto the flash drive

 

[Calcvictim]



Quote:
Originally Posted by downlowder /forum/post/15498466



Edit:


Ahhhhhhhhhhhh...I saw that the file was an .exe file, so I assumed it was the driver itself, rather than an application that would extract the driver.


Truthfully, I still don't know for sure how to install it. Will booting from the flash drive work?

dude, you are overthinking this.



you have a computer, the one you are downloading from, the one you are currently using, not the one that you are building.


1)download the file to that computer

2)insert the flash drive into a USB port on the same computer(the one you are using not the one you are building)

3)run the files you just downloaded and if you have questions come back and ask

4)take that USB flash drive and use it with the F6 option when installing windows vista

 

[downlowder]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Calcvictim /forum/post/15498785


dude, you are overthinking this.



you have a computer, the one you are downloading from, the one you are currently using, not the one that you are building.


1)download the file to that computer

2)insert the flash drive into a USB port on the same computer(the one you are using not the one you are building)

3)run the files you just downloaded and if you have questions come back and ask

4)take that USB flash drive and use it with the F6 option when installing windows vista

I think you misunderstood me, or I misstated. I have downloaded and extracted to the USB drive (using the computer I'm using now), and planned on using it on the build. What I didn't know is how to run the files. I will try whatever the F6 option is. Thanks for your help!

 

[Calcvictim]



Quote:
Originally Posted by downlowder /forum/post/15498917


I think you misunderstood me, or I misstated. I have downloaded and extracted to the USB drive (using the computer I'm using now), and planned on using it on the build. What I didn't know is how to run the files. I will try whatever the F6 option is. Thanks for your help!

I think you missunderstood


you do not extract, but simply run the exe file(double click on it)





tell me exactly what are the folders on the flash drive after you run the exe file