New Hard Drives Not Being Recognized

[TheBG]

I'm in the process of building a computer and I really don't know what I'm doing. I have however managed to get it together, but when I turn on the computer and run the BIOS I don't think it's recognizing my hard drives. My mobo is an nForce 780i SLI and the HDs are 500gb seagate barracuda SATA whatever all that means lol. So anyways when I go into the Standard CMOS Features in the BIOS, under the date and time I only see the following:

IDE Channel 0 Master [None]
IDE Channel 0 Slave [None]

then Drive A and Halt On but no SATA Channels like the instructions that came with the mobo shows. I have the HDs hooked up correctly to the best of my knowledge. I used the sata cables that came with the mobo and put them into the SATA 1 and SATA 2 spots on the mobo as shown in the directions. For power I just plugged the connectors from the PSU that fit the HDs.

Am I missing anything? I've never done this before so I'm totally clueless as to what to do next.

 

[PC eye]

When starting up a new build for the first time you have to enter time and date and go through all sections for things like OS2, plug'n'play, and then exit the bios setup with the "exit and save" option to see the system restart. The drives should then be displayed on the post screen. If you don't see them in the boot order section listed under hard drives then something still isn't right like bad cables or simply not plugged in fully at both ends.

 

[dannaswolcott]

I would check the jumpers again. Make sure they are correct. My hard drive on my one computer died today and when i put in my new hard drive this evening i put in the jumpers wrong and my computer did not pick it up. I was able to put the jumpers in the correct way ( master ) and now its working fine.

 

[PC eye]

Only Sata I type drives see a jumper for changing drive modes not positions on the cable on that type. Most sata models sold now are Sata II and have no jumpers as seen with ide type drives.

 

[SirKenin]

SATA/SATA II drives do have jumpers, but they're not for master/slave settings. The jumpers on SATA/SATA II drives are for limiting the transfer rate for compatibility with certain controllers. It's called "option 1". Blah.

If there's a PATA controller on that board and nothing is hooked up to it it will give you that message, as 0 is for the PATA drives

You don't even have to touch the BIOS for the SATA drives to detect. All recent boards (within the last few years) detect SATA drives automatically without you doing a thing. Usually they're Primary Master 3 or something like that.

 

[StrangleHold]

Only Sata I type drives see a jumper for changing drive modes not positions on the cable on that type. Most sata models sold now are Sata II and have no jumpers as seen with ide type drives.

That statement is backward and plain wrong execpt the cable position jumper. Sata II Drives have the jumper for changing drive mode to Sata I not the other way around. On a W/D Sata II drive to set it to Sata I speed you put a jumper on the second set of pins from the left. And Sata II drives do have jumpers just like I said above, for the drive speed mode, depending on the model, spread specrum, power management. So that whole statement is (WRONG)

 

[TheBG]

Thanks for the replies but man I'm confused. Firstly what are jumpers? PC Eye, I went in and changed the time and date and password but I didn't touch other things that I didn't recognize. You say on the post screen after I save and exit it should show up? Are you referring to the black screen that comes up afterwards, telling what kinda processor and how much ram I have? If so, the drives aren't mentioned on that page. There seems to be some conflicting opinions here so I'm quite confused lol. So what is my next step?

 

[SirKenin]

Your next step is to forget everything PC eye told you.

Then...after that. You don't need to touch the jumpers. Check the SATA connections on the motherboard. Make sure they aren't plugged in to a RAID controller, if your board has such a thing.

At the boot screen where it says "press Del to enter setup", go into the Exit tab, select to reset to default, then select to save and exit. That should be all there is to it. After that they should be detected.

If you give me the exact make and model of the board I can give you more specific directions if you require them.

 

[StrangleHold]

It sounds like you have everything hooked up right. Like said above reset your bios to default, save and exit. Lets simplify this and just pop your XP or Vista DC/DVD in, boot to and see if it sees your harddrive/drives.

 

[TheBG]

My motherboard says its a EVGA Nvidia nForce 780i SLI Mainboard.

As far as RAID, the instructions do say something about that: "There are six serial ATA connectors on the motherboard that support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 0 + 1 and JBOD configurations". I have my two HDs plugged into SATA 1 and SATA 2.

As for resetting to default, I'm not sure where the exit tab is. What do I press at the "press delete" screen?

BTW I really appreciate you guys' help

 

[TheBG]

Ok so now I've attempted to load Vista and all was going well until it asked where I want to install Windows. My options:


Name Total Size Free Space
Disk 0 Unallocated Space 465.8 GB 465.8 GB

Disk 1 Unallocated Space 465.8 GB 465.8 GB



Disk 0 was highlighted so I just pressed Next and it says: "Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation." Does that mean the HD's are not being recognized?

 

[mep916]

You need to create a new volume. Click the drive, select Advanced Options (I think), and select New. Then select Format and install Windows on that drive/partition.

 

[TheBG]

Oh yea I just noticed that on the "press delete" screen it was telling me to switch one of my video cards around which I did and now more is listed than before. It now says

SATA 1 (A0) ST3500320AS SD15
SATA 2 (A1) ST3500320AS SD15
SATA 3 (B0) LITE-ON DVD RW LH-20A1S 9L08
SATA 5 (B1) None
SATA 6 (C0) None
SATA 4 (C1) None

Is that a good sign?

 

[SirKenin]

DING DING DING!!!

hahaha. That's a *great* sign. That's exactly what you want to see. Now go into the Windows setup and install your Windows.

 

[mep916]

Is that a good sign?

Great sign.

 

[TheBG]

You need to create a new volume. Click the drive, select Advanced Options (I think), and select New. Then select Format and install Windows on that drive/partition.

Ok I did this to Disk 0 and it now says "Disk 0 Partition 1" and under Type it says "Primary" however I press Next to install windows to that Disk and yet again it gives me the same exact message. Now what should I do? God I hope I'm getting close!

 

[mep916]

Now what should I do?

I don't know.

 

[SirKenin]

Prepare a driver disk from your motherboard CD for the SATA controller. You probably need to have it installed before Windows can install.

 

[TheBG]

How do I do that? The motherboard came with a CD but in the directions it's talking like I need to do that after windows is installed.

 

[TheBG]

Crap, I was just trying to install it again and a blue screen came up that said "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer" at the top. That cannot be good!