Member Avatar for rdeja

First, please know that I've already checked out the other threads on the subject and none of the solutions have worked in my case.

Having said that, I recently upgraded the memory and replaced the mobo in my HTPC. Below is my current setup:

Gigabyte MA790X-DS4 mobo
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor
4 GB DDR2-800 RAM
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 40GB IDE HDD
Maxtor 6V300F0 300GB SATA HDD
Western Digital WD10EACS 1TB SATA HDD
Running under Vista Home Premium (upgrade from XP Pro)
No RAID

Before performing any upgrades the entire system was running just fine (albeit a bit on the slow side with only 1GB mem). After replacing the motherboard I found that the BIOS couldn't find the 300GB Maxtor SATA drive. The WD one works just fine. If I shut down, unplug the SATA cable, plug it back in, and reboot everything works great... until I reboot again.

I've tried updating the BIOS, using different SATA cables, different power cables, different SATA ports, re-installing Windows using a SATA/RAID driver disk, and uninstalling the SATA/IDE controllers in Windows (allowing Windows to re-install them automatically). About the only thing I haven't tried is voodoo, though if anyone thinks that'll work I'm certainly open to giving it a shot. It's also worth noting that SATA is enabled in the BIOS, but the autodetect feature won't find the disk either.

I'm about at my wit's end here. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

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— the pattern you describe (the Maxtor only appearing after you unplug/replug the cable and then vanishing again on a normal reboot) usually points to one of two things: the drive isn’t finishing its power/spin-up/ATA initialization in time for the board’s POST, or the drive’s electronics/firmware are beginning to fail and won’t enumerate reliably. ’s Disk Management suggestion is a good sanity check, but the root is happening before Windows ever gets control.

Try these checks in order so you don’t lose data and you isolate the fault:

  1. Power-isolate the disk: disconnect the other drives and attach only the 300GB Maxtor. Cold-boot and check BIOS. If it appears, copy any important data off immediately.
  2. Rule out the motherboard: attach the drive to another PC or to a powered USB-SATA adapter/enclosure. If the other system sees it consistently, the Maxtor is probably OK and the problem is timing/compatibility with the Gigabyte board.
  3. Inspect POST/OS logs: when you do get it recognized, check Event Viewer (System) and Device Manager for disk/controller errors, and use a SMART tool to read attributes—intermittent detection often shows reallocated sectors or communication errors.
  4. BIOS toggles and reset: try resetting CMOS to defaults, then change SATA mode (AHCI <-> IDE) and toggle any “hot-plug” or staggered spin-up options if present. Some controllers time out too quickly on older drives.
  5. Last-resort hardware swap: if available, test the Maxtor on a cheap PCI/PCIe SATA controller card — consistent detection there means the board’s southbridge/firmware has compatibility/timing issues.

If the drive is intermittently visible, prioritize backing up — intermittent recognition is a strong warning of impending failure. If all tests fail and the drive contains critical data, consider a professional recovery service.

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Member Avatar for cguan_77

have you tried installing the 40GB hdd with OS and tried booting from there?
and once you're there go to control panel->administrative tools->disk management...then check whether it will be able to detect the 300gb hdd..if able to detect try to partition...

It seems weird but I encountered this problem before and the above trick seems to resolve my problem...

Member Avatar for rdeja

Yeah, that's how my system was set up from the start. The 2 larger disks are strictly storage. Disk management doesn't detect the disk unless I unplug/replug the disk, at which point it's miraculously recognized by the BIOS until I reboot. It's not the ports, since the 1TB drive works on all of them, and I don't think it's the drive, since it worked with the other board. Much more of this and I may just bite the bullet and get a new HDD...

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