Windows 7 Windows 7 not recognizing hard drives

Guinnessblues

New Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2009
Hi,
I just installed Windows 7 build 7068. 64bit.
I have an Asus P5WD2E-Premium mobo, and 5 Western Digital Hard drives of various sizes, all SATA.
Windows recognizes only 2 of the drives, the c drive of course, and only 1 of two WD 400gig hds, which are identical.
I know this may be a mobo issue, but, wasn't sure about Windows 7.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
 
Hi,
I just installed Windows 7 build 7068. 64bit.
I have an Asus P5WD2E-Premium mobo, and 5 Western Digital Hard drives of various sizes, all SATA.
Windows recognizes only 2 of the drives, the c drive of course, and only 1 of two WD 400gig hds, which are identical.
I know this may be a mobo issue, but, wasn't sure about Windows 7.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
Are all HDDS seen in the BIOS setup? If not, you may have to open the case, make sure SATA cable connections to Motherbord and the device are securely inserted and Power connector from PSU to the SATA drive is also firmly and securely in place.

If they are seen and accounted for in the BIOS setup, check your Computer Management >Storage> Disk Management for how Windows is handling Disk 0, 1 etc.

Hope this will lead you to a sucessful conclusion.
 
Nope, BIOS doesn't show them either. I have checked all connections, all secure.
Thanks for your reply

It cannot then be a windows 7 issue if it is not recognised by the BIOS its a hardware issue .

Hard to say what though if you are sure all your connections are secure got me foxed - sorry :(

You did mention it could be a mother board issue I think you will find the answer lies in that direction .
 
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If your hard drives are set as standard IDE or SATA then they should be seen in the BIOS. However, if you have set the controller to make the disks perform in ACHI mode, then (depending on the BIOS) you might not be able to see them - but you should see them listed during the boot sequence.

Depending on the chipset which is controlling them, you might need to install the corresponding chipset driver once you are in Windows 7. This used to happen to me using Vista x64, but once I had installed the correct driver, it gave me the message that new hardware had been found and then went on to (slowly) list all the missing drives.
 
If your hard drives are set as standard IDE or SATA then they should be seen in the BIOS. However, if you have set the controller to make the disks perform in ACHI mode, then (depending on the BIOS) you might not be able to see them - but you should see them listed during the boot sequence.

Depending on the chipset which is controlling them, you might need to install the corresponding chipset driver once you are in Windows 7. This used to happen to me using Vista x64, but once I had installed the correct driver, it gave me the message that new hardware had been found and then went on to (slowly) list all the missing drives.

That is a good reply but as you say they should show up the drives at least during the boot sequence . Reason if they dont show up I still think it may be something else but not sure how the drives are set up this way need more info .
 
Nope, BIOS doesn't show them either. I have checked all connections, all secure.
Thanks for your reply
The BIOS ignoring this drive's existence despite your taking a careful second look by removing and reinserting the connectors , calls the viability of the installed drive into question! :-(

The alternative diagnosis of a single SATA connector on this board becoming defective is so far fetched and therefore, for the time being, I would discount that possibility.

To prove the viabilty of this HDD you can connect it to another system's SATA connector and Power connector and check there or if you are averse to that for any reason, you can use an external USB to SATA or IDE/SATA cable as shown in the attached JPEG image. The price of a good one will be a max of US$ 35. Advantage of this device:you can connect to any XP, VISTA or Win7 system with USB- 2 ports and confirm viability of the Disk. If that system recognizes it by "Found a New device"> "new USB device", Installs it as a New SATA Hard disk and "Ready to Use" you have ruled out HDD death. At this point, if you want, you can also use that system's Disk Management Snap-in tool to Partition and Format this undamaged drive before taking it back to its final destination PC.

If that happens you may have to take a third look at the cables ( both SATA drive and Power Cable by swapping them with new working ones or "borrow"from the SATA disk that works).
Hope this helps.
 
First of all, thanks for all the help and suggestions from all.
OK, this is what I've found so far.
As I said I have 5 internal SATA hdds. I've also got 2 internal SATA optical drives, which are experiencing no problems.
I don't think I have 3 bad drives , so, I rearranged the sata cables on 3 of the drives , and I could not boot system because I lost my boot drive. I again rearranged the cables and I've got my boot drive back. I did however manage to switch the cables on the 2 400 gig drives and now I've got the drive I was missing since the reinstall, and lost the other one. So, it's not the drives. BTW, I left the power cables as is, so not them.
Hopefully, lol, I'll hear back from Asus tomorrow.
If I get this sorted out, I will post the details here.
Thanks again.
 
First of all, thanks for all the help and suggestions from all.
OK, this is what I've found so far.
As I said I have 5 internal SATA hdds. I've also got 2 internal SATA optical drives, which are experiencing no problems.
I don't think I have 3 bad drives , so, I rearranged the sata cables on 3 of the drives , and I could not boot system because I lost my boot drive. I again rearranged the cables and I've got my boot drive back. I did however manage to switch the cables on the 2 400 gig drives and now I've got the drive I was missing since the reinstall, and lost the other one. So, it's not the drives. BTW, I left the power cables as is, so not them.
Hopefully, lol, I'll hear back from Asus tomorrow.
If I get this sorted out, I will post the details here.
Thanks again.
May I ask the Specification of your Power Supply Unit? I hope it has a PSU > 500 watts to support all these devices and power the Fans that need to cool the machine! Justv another thought while waiting for the MoBo Tech support to answer your querry.
 
Lol, gotcha. It's a Mushkin, either 650 or 800 watt, can't remember at the moment . Been running clean for a couple of years.
And, yes, I've got a psu tester, and, power okay on cables.

Ok , getting nowhere with Asus, I figure I need the Vista64 SATA controller which I can't seem to get. I'm not able for some reason to click on the drivers download page on Asus.
At any rate, I think I have another problem, although I think I already know the answer.I originally did a clean install of Windows 7 32bit. Then I realized I had the 7068 build of Windows 7 64bit. I thought I did a clean install of the 64bit, since during setup I clicked on format. Now, i don't think it did, because I show 2 folders in the c drive for Program files, 1 of which is identified as (x86), which is the 32bit, right?
Now what, do I need to redo a new install of 64bit?:confused:
 
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Setting up windows 7 64X

When you get to the windows setup options choose Custom advanced and then advanced disk options .
You will then be presented with all your partitions or systems on your current disk . Then you can delete any partition you dont want or delete the entire disk and do a format and install . Hope that helped.
That is the best way to do a truly clean install no old windows stuff left on the disk . Otherwise you will have your old files still on disk as you found .
 
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Lol, gotcha. It's a Mushkin, either 650 or 800 watt, can't remember at the moment . Been running clean for a couple of years.
And, yes, I've got a psu tester, and, power okay on cables.

Ok , getting nowhere with Asus, I figure I need the Vista64 SATA controller which I can't seem to get. I'm not able for some reason to click on the drivers download page on Asus.
At any rate, I think I have another problem, although I think I already know the answer.I originally did a clean install of Windows 7 32bit. Then I realized I had the 7068 build of Windows 7 64bit. I thought I did a clean install of the 64bit, since during setup I clicked on format. Now, i don't think it did, because I show 2 folders in the c drive for Program files, 1 of which is identified as (x86), which is the 32bit, right?
Now what, do I need to redo a new install of 64bit?:confused:
This is posted urgently before reading your whole post. You should have in C:\ two Program Files that includes the Progarm Files (X86) and it is Not due to any problem with your formatting.
I will have a follow up shortly. This is just so that you don't go and reinstall for no good reason:)
 
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Thanks,
Yes, I found that out, lol, in time. Appreciate it.
What is your MoBo BIOS version?
ASUS has Version 0604 [2006/08/03 update] @ their site. ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-

DescriptionP5WD2-E Premium BIOS 0604
Resolve Marvell 6141 compatibility issue with some hard disk drive
Support new CPUs. Please refer to our website at : ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-


You might look into the above MoBo related solution.
If you have a newer and reliable brand PSU which is over 500 watts, you can try it in this rig; it is worth the effort at least in ruling out Power issue.

I seriously doubt it is an OS or even driver problem beacuse all other SATA devices work OK.

To rule out any BIOS corruption , after decabling and removing MoBo PWR connector(s) you can remove CMOS Jumper from its current 2 pins and seat it onto the other 2 adjascent pins for about 5-10 secs and back on deafult pins to Reset BIOS and if needed as a second step, after Powering on change BIOS settings to the Default or Optimum .

While inside the chassis under good illumination, check all cable connections and add -on cards !!!!
Good luck
 
I have BIOS 0604. But, I see what you mean about the possible BIOS corruption. I think after checking everything, the reset of BIOS might be the way to go. I will let you know how it goes. and the outcome. Might be a few days now, as I do believe I'm getting a good case of bronchitis:redface:
Thanks once more for all your efforts.
 
Ok , one question, if I reset the BIOS as you describe, will I have to update it again, or does this just reset it to the 0604 defaults?

And another thing, I notice in My Computer Device Manager, there is a warning next to Serial ATA Controller. When I bring up properties, it says to reinstall the driver. When I click to let Windows automatically find the driver, it comes back saying that the current installed driver(Marvell 614x) is the most up to date driver?
 
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Ok , one question, if I reset the BIOS as you describe, will I have to update it again, or does this just reset it to the 0604 defaults?

All that the reset does is clear any corruption it will not revert to an earlier time . Hope that helped and get well soon :)

Ok , one question, if I reset the BIOS as you describe, will I have to update it again, or does this just reset it to the 0604 defaults?

And another thing, I notice in My Computer Device Manager, there is a warning next to Serial ATA Controller. When I bring up properties, it says to reinstall the driver. When I click to let Windows automatically find the driver, it comes back saying that the current installed driver(Marvell 614x) is the most up to date driver?

That is because that is the only driver windows update knows about .
Does not mean there are not other drivers available though there may be .

Have you tried in device manager to disable the hardware and then restart windows ?
You should get the found new hardware wizard come up . It just may help . Good luck
 
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OK, so fare I have determined that the drives connected to SATA 1,2,3,4 are all recognized and working fine. The drives connected to Raid 1,2,3 are not recognized. I am not using Raid, and have SATA and E-SATA enabled.
Now stupid question time: I cannot locate the pins to reset the BIOS. They're probably under the Graphics or Sound card, but, I figured I'd ask anyway.

I also see that the MArvell RAID controller does recognize the 2 hdds which are connected to it, so, it seems more and more to me that itis a SATA Controller issue, but, for the life of me I cannot find a suitable driver.
 
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OK, so fare I have determined that the drives connected to SATA 1,2,3,4 are all recognized and working fine. The drives connected to Raid 1,2,3 are not recognized. I am not using Raid, and have SATA and E-SATA enabled.
Now stupid question time: I cannot locate the pins to reset the BIOS. They're probably under the Graphics or Sound card, but, I figured I'd ask anyway.

I also see that the MArvell RAID controller does recognize the 2 hdds which are connected to it, so, it seems more and more to me that itis a SATA Controller issue, but, for the life of me I cannot find a suitable driver.
Attached JPG Image of your MoBo showing CMOS Jumper default and CMOS Clearing positions
 
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