Motherboard won't detect hard drive. Help!

Dko

New Member
Hey guys,

I'm having some trouble getting my motherboard to detect my SATA hard drive on my new build. I hooked up my HDD to another computer, formatted it and put a fresh install of XP pro. When I plug it into my new build I get nothing detected (I was also getting nothing before the format). I've run through my BIOS settings like a million times and have searched the internet with no answers. All components are detected (DVD Drives, any IDE components) except for my Sata hard drive. I've gotten others to take a look at it too and nobody can figure anything out. Any ideas? Any help will be greatly appreciated! Here are the specs:

-Asus m4a79xtd EVO motherboard
-AMD Phenom II 965 BE 3.4 Ghz
-XFX Radeon HD 5770
-Seagate Barracuda 320 GB 7200 rpm SATA Hard Drive
-4 gb Corsair XMS3 1333 Mhz DDR3 RAM
-Ultra X4 750 Watt PSU
 
Bad sata ports? Have you reset the cmos? Sata ports enabled? By the way, you can't install an OS on one computer and then move the hd to another system end expect it to work as all the hardware is different.
 
The sata ports are enabled. I reset cmos as well with no progression. Bad sata ports might be an issue. It's a new board. I've never experienced a board with no sata ports working before. Any other reasons nothing will detect? I'm not sure how old the hard drive is. I would guess maybe 7 years old or so. Could it just be that the drive is too old for my board? I had a problem like that once.
 
I've had similar issues in the past. Getting a new motherboard solved the problem though. Sometimes it would work for days and days and just stop working all of a sudden.

I believe the mobo would have dodgy SATA ports, it might be a bad SATA cable too. I can tell you it probably isn't the hard drive itself though (though it could be)

If you have another computer test the drive in there with the same SATA cable. If the problem continues, try another SATA cable. If that doesn't work, it very well might be the drive itself.
 
I know it isn't the drive. I tested it on another computer with the cable. I'll try using different cables and ports and see if it makes a difference.
 
if its sata, its not quite 7 years old I don't think. Are you sure its sata and not IDE?
 
I'm sure it's sata. The reason I said 7 years old is because the guy I bought it from a year ago told me he had the computer built about 5 or 6 years prior. He could have been mistaken. I scrapped most of the computer and kept a few drives and other parts. I've tried everything to get this new build to accept the drive. It will read IDE drives but no SATA drives. I wonder if all of the sata ports are just malfunctioning. I've read through my manual and have tried all I can think of. I've tried to get answers from asus but the process of contacting them is horrid. Once I enter the BIOS is just says none detected for all SATA ports. I've tried changing the jumpers to master and slave and all configurations to see if I get anything and nothing works.
 
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