Member Avatar for fenix88

greetings!

i just bought a new samsung 320gb 3.0gb/s HDD. unfortunately, i didn't know that my MB only supported SATA-I. i connected the HDD to 2nd sata(primary) slot, turned on my computer, but when i checked my bios it said that it didn't detect any hard drive. so i placed the jumper so that it would run in the 1.5gb/s mode, but it still wasn't detected. i've been trying to look for an answer to my problem for the past few days, but i still can't find anything. can someone please help me? thank you!

  • 2 Contributors
  • 3 Replies
  • 670 Views
  • 5 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by fenix88

Dani AI

Generated

Quick, focused troubleshooting that assumes BIOS-level detection must succeed before any OS driver work. Since already tried the jumper and slipstreaming drivers and correctly suggested checking cables, the next steps should isolate power, cabling, the drive itself, and the Asrock board in that order.

  1. Confirm power: with the PC off swap the SATA power plug to a different connector (or a known-good Molex-to-SATA adapter). Power on and check for spin-up, vibration, or drive LED activity. No spin = power or dead drive.
  2. Swap the data cable and port: use a different SATA cable and try every onboard SATA port (use the port the manual calls SATA0/SATA1 first). Faulty cables/ports are common.
  3. Verify on another system: connect the drive to a different PC or a USB-SATA adapter. Detected there = motherboard or cable problem; not detected = likely drive or power issue.
  4. Verify the Asrock with a known-good drive: if a working HDD is seen by the Asrock board, the board is probably OK.
  5. Clear CMOS and BIOS defaults: reset BIOS, make sure the SATA controller is enabled and try a "Compatible/IDE" mode if available (this is a BIOS-level check only; drivers do not affect detection here).
  6. BIOS and capacity check: check the board manual for large-drive (48-bit LBA) support and update BIOS only if necessary and after backing up settings.
  7. Last resorts: if the drive spins but BIOS still never detects it, consider controller incompatibility or a faulty southbridge; a cheap PCI(e) SATA controller is a quick workaround. If the drive never spins or clicks, RMA the drive.

Cautions: always power down and discharge before swapping connectors, and watch for clicking noises (drive failure). Because BIOS must see the disk before Windows, slipstreaming drivers won’t help until the hardware-level issue is resolved.

Recommended Answers

All 3 Replies

Member Avatar for OlyComputers

Double check the jumper configuration, I've done this with dozens of SATA-II drives and it's always worked. You might also want to check the cables and ports incase that's the problem because a properly jumpered SATA-II drive shouldn't have any compatibility issues.

Member Avatar for fenix88

Double check the jumper configuration, I've done this with dozens of SATA-II drives and it's always worked. You might also want to check the cables and ports incase that's the problem because a properly jumpered SATA-II drive shouldn't have any compatibility issues.

i've checked the jumper configuration. this is what i did, http://www.samsung.com/global/system/business/hdd/faq/2007/6/28/40395620051216154941_SATAspeedselectionjumper.jpg . hmm..well i guess i can try that too..

Member Avatar for fenix88

hmm..still nothing..i even tried slipstreaming the SATA drivers for my motherboard, but even the win xp installation can't detect the HDD. so yeah, BIOS and Win XP aren't detecting the HDD.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.