Computer cannot read second HDD

[Deleted]

Hi,
I've recently purchased a new HDD (WD Velociraptor 600Gb) in addition to my Corsair 120Gb SSD.

I consider myself to be pretty handy with computers (although probably anywhere near the people here, considering I'm only 16, with little to no education in computers). Even so, I can't get it to work (I have checked the SATA and power cables multiple times, I'm not a moron (and yes, it IS running, I can hear it/feel the vibrations)).

Any help on my issue would be greatly appreciated.

And finally, excuse any grammar/spelling mistakes, English is not my native language.

[shags the penguin]

You checked if your BIOS is showing the drive as detected ? First step to check. Will hopefully rule if its hardware or a more driver/Software/OS problem.

[Deleted]

Well, to get my computer to start at all, I had to set my SSD as the hard disk to boot first. It showed my WD there, if that's enough confirmation.

Before doing that, it showed the "insert boot media" message.

[vesseblah]

Does the disc show up in BIOS? Did you set BIOS to ACHI mode? If the answer to both is yes, most likely the disc is dead and needs to get replaced.

Also, Velociraptors are huge waste of money nowadays, and totally replaced by SSDs. Would recommend getting your money back from the disc assuming it's dead, you will not get value for your money using it as a data storage. Samsung Spinpoint F3 or WD Caviar Black are more than enough for porn/mp3 storage and will save quite significant amount of money.

---------- Post added 2011-02-05 at 01:55 AM ----------

Well, to get my computer to start at all, I had to set my SSD as the hard disk to boot first. It showed my WD there, if that's enough confirmation.

Before doing that, it showed the "insert boot media" message.

You will want the PC to boot from SSD anyway, Velociraptor would just slow you down.

Anyway, sounds like problem is you need to set discs in BIOS to AHCI from IDE or RAID mode. If that doesn't solve it, and you can not get both discs visible in BIOS if you swap around the SATA cables into different ports, it's most likely broken.

[Deleted]

1) Since I just bought it it would be pretty lame for it to be dead straight out of the box, so I'm not so sure I'm hoping on that.
2) Caviar black was my first choice, but it was out of stock for ages.
3) It just defaulted to booting from the velociraptor, I have my windows on my ssd, so ofc would I boot from that instead.

I don't have acces to my computer atm, I'm gonna go to bed any minute now since I live in europe, and I'm 16, but I'mma check the bios and switching sata ports tommorrow.

[Destrozo]

If the drive shows up in BIOS but not in windows right click "My Computer" and click manage then on the left side click "Disk Management" you should see your drive in the list below...you may just need to initialize it and/or assign it a drive letter.

[Deleted]

Oh, I'll just try that first then

---------- Post added 2011-02-05 at 11:19 AM ----------

If the drive shows up in BIOS but not in windows right click "My Computer" and click manage then on the left side click "Disk Management" you should see your drive in the list below...you may just need to initialize it and/or assign it a drive letter.

Okay, so I've checked now, and it doesn't show up there. Will try setting it to AHCI and switching SATA ports.

---------- Post added 2011-02-05 at 12:07 PM ----------

Does the disc show up in BIOS? Did you set BIOS to ACHI mode? If the answer to both is yes, most likely the disc is dead and needs to get replaced.

Also, Velociraptors are huge waste of money nowadays, and totally replaced by SSDs. Would recommend getting your money back from the disc assuming it's dead, you will not get value for your money using it as a data storage. Samsung Spinpoint F3 or WD Caviar Black are more than enough for porn/mp3 storage and will save quite significant amount of money.

---------- Post added 2011-02-05 at 01:55 AM ----------



You will want the PC to boot from SSD anyway, Velociraptor would just slow you down.

Anyway, sounds like problem is you need to set discs in BIOS to AHCI from IDE or RAID mode. If that doesn't solve it, and you can not get both discs visible in BIOS if you swap around the SATA cables into different ports, it's most likely broken.

So, the final results are: Setting it to AHCI didn't fix anything, infact, it made my computer not run at all. I had to run startup repair, which didn't help at all :P I tried switching SATA ports. I also tried using a 3Gb/sec port/cable instead of 6Gb/sec, which made it show up in the BIOS, but not in the OS. I tried using RAID instead of IDE too. Nothing seems to be working. Will try reclaiming my money and buying a Caviar Black instead.