Sata HDD doesn't work

[gassan777]

I have a problem: I have 160gb SATA HDD and got 500gb now. I installed it connecting it to 2nd SATA port on motherboard. Bios doesn't recognize it. Whenever I switch cables, Bios recognizes new HDD but not the old one. I tried all four ports and it seems like only port 0 works.

What could be the problem? Is there a process to activate SATA ports on motherboard or what?

Thanks!

[Boris]

What make of BIOS does the motherboard have ?

[gassan777]

What make of BIOS does the motherboard have ?

Not sure. Can only answer that in the evening. It is Dell Dimension 8400 series. About 2 years old :(

[Scarecrow Man]

Some computers require you to press a button to enter the SATA/RAID setup. Most are something like F6, or SHIFT+F for example, before Windows loads.

Have a look here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/syst...00/en/index.htm

You may need to browse a bit, before you find your solution.

EDIT: I found it, but this may be a dynamic link:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/syst...s.htm#wp1054037

If this link does not work, follow the 1st link.

Go to:

HTML Documents

View

Removing and Installing Parts

Hard Drive

# Turn on the computer.

# Enter system setup, and update the appropriate Drive option.

# Exit system setup, and restart the computer.

[gassan777]

Some computers require you to press a button to enter the SATA/RAID setup. Most are something like F6, or SHIFT+F for example, before Windows loads.

Have a look here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/syst...00/en/index.htm

You may need to browse a bit, before you find your solution.

EDIT: I found it, but this may be a dynamic link:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/syst...s.htm#wp1054037

If this link does not work, follow the 1st link.

Go to:

HTML Documents

View

Removing and Installing Parts

Hard Drive

# Turn on the computer.

# Enter system setup, and update the appropriate Drive option.

# Exit system setup, and restart the computer.

Yep, it was BIOS SATA/RAID option! The odd thing is whenever I changed it to RAID Autodetect / ATA BIOS started recognizing it, but windows would blue screen right away. So I changed it back to RAID Autodetect / AHCI (the option it was defaulted too and which didnt work) and now it works. I restarted it several times and it works fine..Strange huh.

Thanks for your help guys!