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D900k will not "see" new HDD.

post #1 of 33
3/3/10 at 2:22pm
Thread Starter 
I just got a Boxx 1402 (Sager 9750) D9k with a bad Motherboard from a friend at a really good price. Ordered a new motherboard from ztronics, $200 & the install went okay. Installed 2 new 7200 RPM Western Digital (Black) HDD's #1, 160Gb & #2, 320 Gb. Machine boots up, POST works great but doesn't see HDD's. BIOS also doesn't see HDD. Did the f6 thing during attempted Windows installation. It red / installed the SATA / RAID driver off of the external floppy drive, still no HDD's. Windows installation fails since it sees no HDD. I installed the original HDD & the system, POST & BIOS sees the original drive as SATA 1. It will also boot up to the login screen. My friend has since given me the login info & I could log into his HDD but it should not be so difficult to get the system to see a new HDD. I initialized & formatted the 2 new HDD's with another Win XP laptop with the drives plugged into a USB port.
I'm hoping that I just missed a step somewhere along the line. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
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post #2 of 33
3/3/10 at 2:58pm
Tried updating the BIOS first since it is a new motherboard?

cheers ...
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post #3 of 33
3/3/10 at 3:22pm
Thread Starter 
The BIOS reports out as 1.0.0.9 (I think) I'm at work & the Notebook is at home.
It is the latest from what I understand.
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post #4 of 33
3/3/10 at 3:34pm
Did you just try with ONE hard drive instead of the 2 together? 1.0.0.9 is the latest BIOS as I have seen out there.

cheers ...
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post #5 of 33
3/3/10 at 4:28pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, each one individually as well as with both installed.
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post #6 of 33
3/4/10 at 6:19pm
Thread Starter 
No more ideas?
Sure could use some help.
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post #7 of 33
3/4/10 at 8:13pm
Can you clone your friend's drive to one of the new one you got and see if you can start it from there?

cheers ...
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post #8 of 33
3/7/10 at 11:34pm
Thread Starter 
My friend cloned his drive & gave it to me. I booted up his Win XP. Asked for a reformat & fresh install of XP & I'm up & running. Been updating Win XP & other drivers and installing S/W. It's still a mystery to me why the system does not see the WD drives. The drive that works is a Hitachi. I've got the 160 Gb WD drive piggy backed on the Hitachi & the system does not see it at all. I guess I'll get a couple of HDD enclosures for the 2 WD's. They seem to work fine when plugged into a USB port. I don't mind buying another HDD but can I expect different results with a Hitachi piggy backed as a second drive?
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post #9 of 33
3/8/10 at 6:42pm
Have you looked closely into the specs of the Hitachi and the WD drives?

cheers ...
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post #10 of 33
3/8/10 at 7:16pm
Thread Starter 
Not yet, but I'm starting to think that it may be that the Hitachi drive is SATA 1.5 Gb/s. I know that the WD drives are SATA 3.0 Gb/s. The plug on the motherboard looks like a PATA or IDE type plug. I understand that when SATA first came out it was common for manufacturers to offer a ribbon that would go from IDE motherboard to SATA HDD's.
Does this seem like possible reason for my HDD woes?
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post #11 of 33
3/8/10 at 7:24pm
Hard to say. I would not think that the SATA version would make a difference other that the older comps cannot take advantage of the full speed.

cheers ...
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post #12 of 33
3/16/10 at 5:46pm
Can Sombody Help!
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post #13 of 33
3/16/10 at 6:12pm
Hello! Can You Help? How do I post a question? on forums. My 9750 screen is Black New Motherboard 3 flasing green lights?
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post #14 of 33
4/8/10 at 11:32pm
The solution you are looking for is close at hand. First, when you boot, hit F2 and once in the bios, make sure you uncheck Raid. Then it will start recognizing the drive(s).

If you DO want raid, ensure you have a floppy disk with the "proper" Raid drivers on them... "S" key when promted. It will install the raid drivers and proceed to install your OS.

Hope this helps.
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post #15 of 33
1/28/11 at 1:05am
Thread Starter 

New OEM HDD Hitachi not recognized

Just bought 2 new OEM Hitachi HDD's from Newegg
One "NBHD 250GB | Hitachi 0A72332 7.2K" and
One "NBHD 500G | Hitachi 0A72335 7K"

They arrived in the anti-static bags with no other packaging.
I took out the (functioning but full 100G Hitachi) 2nd (Non-operating system) drive from my D900k Notebook & installed the 500 GB drive. It was not recognized at all.
I have a SATA to USB adapter & tried using it. Through USB the system "sees" the 500 GB drive but it shows up on the Computer Management screen as "Unknown", Not Initialized", & "Unallocated".

Do I need to initialize the drive & then format it in order for it to be seen when installed in the notebook? Are there any particular settings / options that need to be selected during the initialization or formatting?

This is the same problem I was having back in March 2010 when I first bought the D900K. The only way I was able to overcome this was the original owner of the D900K gave me the 2 100GB HDD's that were originally installed.
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post #16 of 33
1/28/11 at 5:15am
How about cloning the one(s) you have to the new one(s) before swapping them out?

cheers ...
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post #17 of 33
1/28/11 at 1:16pm
Thread Starter 
Cloning works for me.
I understand that cloning is more than simply "selecting all" and dragging the results to the new HDD.
So my question now is what's a good way to clone?
Can you clone the HDD with the operating system & expect it to simply boot up just like the original with all of your s/w & settings?
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post #18 of 33
1/28/11 at 1:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rickinsavh View Post
Cloning works for me.
I understand that cloning is more than simply "selecting all" and dragging the results to the new HDD.
So my question now is what's a good way to clone?
Can you clone the HDD with the operating system & expect it to simply boot up just like the original with all of your s/w & setting?
Yes!

cheers ...
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post #19 of 33
1/28/11 at 1:28pm
Thread Starter 
Any advice on coning s/w? A quick search results in many options & speaks to the differences between duplicating, imaging, copying, etc. and warns of areas being limited by the OS.
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post #20 of 33
1/28/11 at 8:29pm
Free stuff like EASEUS back up works fine, or HD Clone free.

After cloning and booting up the drive you might need another free software like GPart LiveCD to repartition or extend the partition - if you don't have Vista or Windows 7.

cheers ...
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