M4A89GTS PRO/USB3 can't see second drive in bios

[ElDude]

Ello!

I've just upgraded my system, including the above board. For some reason the board won't see my backup drive (with all my music, backups, photos, etc, etc!).

I've had a read around and there's nothing out there on google that I can find for this board other than one person having an issue with the board not seeing a DVD drive, which was apparently fixed with a bios revision.

I've checked the bios update with the intention of flashing the mobo, but it's already the most recent revision, with the older ones not listing anything about this issue.

There's nothing wrong with the hard drive at all (sata 7200rpm 300gb drive) and it was working on my other older Asus board I took out immediately before hand. It isn't being detected in bios either.

I'm assuming (hoping) it's something in the bios that needs altering, but in all honesty this board seems to have a lot more options in it than my previous one, so I don't want to blindly tinker. My sisters other half said he has the same problem when he built his (ironically I chose the same system for him too!) but he's gone offline so I can't contact them to find out what he did to fix it.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'd appreciate it as I've lost a LOT of data if I can't get this drive working.

Ta!

On a side note, fitting an icy box is a right pain in the hoop with all the cables, in a full tower!

 

[ElDude]

Well I've swapped the drive to another channel now and no joy. I'll try a new power connector instead now.

{edit} Nope, changed channel to one previously used by the icy box that I know definitely works and nothing. Changed sata cable and nothing there either. The system just isn't detecting the drive at all.

 

[ElDude]

Now tried every channel, every cable I had, and have with the new system. NOTHING is detecting this drive.

Also, Windows performance thing is coming up with an error stating there's an issue with the main hdd so it can't assess it.

God, this is getting annoying.

 

[ElDude]

Well I've tried absolutely everything you can. Oddly the Asus bios update tool said my bios was up to date, when it was over 6 months old, so I've downloaded the ROM and updated to no avail. When I just booted up I heard a click of death, so I'm HOPING that this is the backup drive trying to spin up but failing. At least I'll know where I stand then. If the main drive is dying, that's an extra pain in the hole.

Anyway, I've just ordered an external 500gb drive and an internal one too. If the internal one installs, I'll know the backup drive is defective.

Gutted. Two years of photography lost

 

[ElDude]

I FIXED IT!

I was wondering if it was something to do with it supporting SSD/RAID etc. Then I started wondering about transfer rates as I had an old vague memory of my old Abit motherboard having a similar issue about 9 years ago (what happened to them?). You had to manually set the transfer rates in one of their pro boards. So I googled for a bit and found nothing, and thought I'd give it a go anyway. I changed the transfer rate to 3gb p/sec from 6gb and voilà, on reboot the system wouldn't boot at all! Progress!

Into the boot menu I toddled, and sitting there were two drives. Apparently the 6gb sata1 channel is priority, so I swapped them around in bios and a working system I have. Apparently, the clicking I heard wasn't the click of death, it was the drive briefly starting up, seeing that it wouldn't work at that rate and powering down.

Still, this experience means that I am not risking this again and I'm keeping the two drives I've ordered. I'll be backing them up, and I'll see if I can get my mum to buy a case so I'll build my redundant system sooner rather than later Incidentally, I've just moved my old laptop bag and a copy of XP professional I didn't know I had fell out

I've got all the other bits, I just need a case now and I'll have my system, backup drive, external backup and a totally separate system for back ups.

Sweet!

Ta for your reply anyway nkata. You're the only person on four forums that even bothered replying!