W7 doesn't recognise my hdd

mightyapu · 19 Apr 2011 at 17:11

hello there

i've recently acquired all the parts for my first build, but after popping them all together i can't get W7 to install

MB is Gigabyte P61
HD is 500gb Western Digital blue caviar, which incidentally came with the copy of W7

my bios recognises the hd but when i commence the installation of W7 it doesn't spot the drive, it then asks for drivers, but WD say they shouldn't be necessary as it should use generic OS ones, and the MB disk doesn't have anything that W7 recogises either

is anyone aware of any compatability issues with these? i'm afraid i'm a little lost and don't know what to do next

Ginger-Menace · 19 Apr 2011 at 17:12

have you tried pluging in to another sata port

mightyapu · 19 Apr 2011 at 17:14

i hadn't, but i will now...

mightyapu · 19 Apr 2011 at 17:27

i've tried one of the other sata ports but still no luck, does the drive need to be formatted before i can install an OS? i presumed i could pop one on straight out of the box

opethdisciple · 19 Apr 2011 at 17:32

You will have to format/assign a dirve letter etc........

Right click on my computer and choose manage

this will pop open the computer manager window.

Under storage choose disk management.

In here you should see your drive, right click it choose format, or assing drive letter etc....

mightyapu · 19 Apr 2011 at 17:45

is that applicable given its from scratch? - the system has no OS at the moment

Ginger-Menace · 19 Apr 2011 at 17:46

do u haver another pc you can connect it to to format it?

bledd · 19 Apr 2011 at 17:57

Windows setup will see a blank hard drive, go into the BIOS.

Set the SATA mode to AHCI and try again

If that fails, set SATA to IDE mode

Also, maybe update the BIOS, you can do this from within the BIOS screen on Gigabyte motherboards

(I assume this is the right model, check you have B3) http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3778#bios

mightyapu · 19 Apr 2011 at 17:59

ok...i'll try that - i've had a root through some of the windows forums and have already tried to change the sata mode to ahci, the bios didn't recognnise the drive so i put it back to ide

bledd · 19 Apr 2011 at 18:03

Ignore what they've said above, Windows will see a drive regardless of whether it's been formatted or not

If you want to format it for peace of mind.. download 'Parted Magic' iso on your other pc, and burn it to a CD

Boot from this in your new pc, should be able to format it from there

^^That BIOS update page does show a BIOS update referring to better hard drive compatibility

mightyapu · 19 Apr 2011 at 18:44

thanks for that - the file i've downloaded from Gigabyte, does that need to be burned to a cd before running the q flash utility from bios? or can i drop it onto a pen drive?

mightyapu · 19 Apr 2011 at 20:01

i've dropped the f5 bios onto a cd and attempted to run it from the q disk function - unfortunately q disk refers to a "drive" and i've no idea what this is, it certainly isn't reading the new bios from the cd

i've e-mailed gigabyte, but other than that i am stumped :/

bledd · 19 Apr 2011 at 20:13

will work from a pen drive

craigxt22 · 19 Apr 2011 at 20:29

bledd. said:
Windows will see a drive regardless of whether it's been formatted or not

I built my first PC a few months back, and had to format my HDD on another computer because it wasn't recognized!

Just thought I'd mention it

mightyapu · 19 Apr 2011 at 21:10

managed to flash the bios to the latest version - ended up connecting my current HD to the new rig but alas still no success - i'll try formatting the drive in this computer but i think that can wait until tomorrow, today i'm a beaten man

and thank you for the advice

mightyapu · 22 Apr 2011 at 00:15

fingers crossed i might just have cracked it - was able to create a bootable cd with a western digital utility that allowed me to "write zeros", which i assume is just yank for format - soon as it was done win7 picked the drive up and its installing now

thanks for the advice guys

cheers