3rd Hard Drive detected in BIOS but NOT in Windows

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me with this problem. I have two WD SATA drives (WD3200AAKS & WD6400AAKS) which have worked fine for a few months. Now I'm trying to install a third SATA drive (another WD6400AAKS).
BIOS detects it on IDE Channel 2 (Master) with correct specs. AHCI and RAID are disabled. During bootup, I can see all 3 drives detected at POST.
My problem is that Windows XP doesn't detect the third drive. When I go to Computer Management > Disk Manager, there's no sign of the drive. I see no way to format it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

 

Hi,
Is this drive right out of the box?
That is to say, un-partitioned and un-formatted?

I have never, ever, presented a new hard drive to Windows without first booting the system up to DOS and partitioning and formatting the drive.

For safety, the new drive should be the only one connected during this process, so you don't wind up formatting your OS drive.

If your SATA port on your mobo is SATA2, then make sure that the SATA1 jumper on the back of the drive is REMOVED. Otherwise, the drive will NOT be seen. IT's a minor detail, but it's already bit a bunch of people in the pants.

I use my Windows ME boot disk to FDISK and Format every hard drive I get before I ever present it to Windows XP.
But then, I use nothing but FAT-32 for all my drives.

Even if you set up a drive as FAT-32, in Windows there's a Utility to convert it to NTFS, if that's what you want.

Almost an afterthought.......make sure the data cables are TIGHT.
They have a real bad habit of working loose. I fasten all my SATA cables to my drives with HOT GLUE, so they can't come loose.

Good Luck,
The Shadow :cool

 

Have you tried putting the two WD6400AAKS on the same channel?

Found this:

I don't know if this is true of PATA or SATA though... since you are using only Western Digital, obviously the bit about the electrical probably wouldn't apply.

It was also suggested that the BIOS be set to auto-detect. And I can't recall where, but someone suggested Enabling RAID even though you won't be using it... though they did not say why...

Just some ideas... when nothing works, try everything?

Hope you get it sorted out.

 

That's really weird, what does it say in BIOS proper and can you change it? Maybe reset BIOS to default, it should not be read as being on IDE.:confused

Oh, try a different Sata slot too.

 

Good point Augie...

Is your BIOS the latest version compatible with your mobo/CPU?

 

Thanks for the ideas!
Forgot to mention motherboard is Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P.
To answer your questions, the drive is brand new, OEM, unpartitioned, etc. There shouldn't be any jumper settings to configure being a SATA drive. The WD manual states:
"Western Digital Serial ATA hard drives ship from the factory with a jumper shunt in the
Default position (across pins 1 and 2). It is not necessary to move the jumper shunt on the drive for workstation or desktop use."

Also, relevant BIOS settings:
SATA RAID/AHCI Mode (Intel ICH9R Southbridge) - DISABLED (configures the SATA controllers to PATA mode (Default))
SATA Port0-3 Native Mode (Intel ICH9R Southbridge) - ENABLED (Allows the SATA controllers to operate in Native IDE mode)

There are 6 integrated SATA ports on the motherboard. The first two drives are in IDE channels 0 and 1. I tried the third drive in every other port. Depending on the port used, the BIOS will show it on channels 2-5, sometimes Master sometimes Slave. MY SATA DVDR appears on channel 3. All channels are set to Auto detect. Like I said, it shows up in BIOS with correct specs.

I know my BIOS is compatible with the CPU because my computer has worked perfectly with the two hard drives. It's just a matter of getting Windows to recognize this third drive, which is the exact same make and model as my drive #2.

I will try The Shadow's suggestion and format/partition from DOS (actually from the Windows installation CD) and unconnect my other drives to make sure I don't lose anything.

If that doesn't work, maybe I'll try changing the SATA mode to RAID.. seems unusual but what the hell!

Thanks again.

Edit: here's some screenshots of my BIOS..
All drives
HDD #2
HDD #3

Notice that HDD #2 (the working one) shows "IDE HDD auto-detection" and "IDE Channel 1 Master". The 3rd drive just shows "IDE auto-detection" and "Extended IDE Drive". What does this mean??

 

I finally figured out the problem! It turns out that in Device Manager, under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" all the previously unused Primary/Secondary IDE Channel devices were set to "None" instead of "Auto Detection" (under the Advanced tab). This was preventing the new drive from being seen in Windows.

Thanks again for your time and suggestions! Maybe this thread will help someone in the future.