Bios sees HDD but Vista doesn't

[Spark80]

I'll be honest this is my first time to build a pc.

The problem I'm having is my bios is recognizing my HDD, but when I try to install, format and partition my HDD and install the OS, Windows says it doesn't recognize a drive and asks me to check connections and restart..

This is the only snag I have run into so far.

Here's the rig:
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L mobo
E8400 3.0 gHz Wolfdale Intel Core 2 Duo
2x1024 Corsair Dominator DDR2 SDRAM 1066
BFG nVidea 8800GT 512mb
Hitachi Deskstar 320gb 7200 rpm 3gb/s SATA HD w/ 16mb Cache
OCZ StealthXStream 600W PSU
DVD-Rom
Sony DVD-Rw
NZXT Zero Full ATX Case

The bios sees the Hitachi HDD and that it's a 320gb drive.

It's not formatted

Windows XP Pro or Vista(Vista Ultimate 32-bit) will not recognize the drive.

Any help, tips, solutions? Please!!

 

[houkouonchi]

odds are vista does not have drivers for your mobos SATA controllers. Not entirely sure what the procedure is with vista but on XP you had to put the drivers on a floppy and hit f6 during the XP setup to install the drivers so it would see the drive or slipstream the drivers into the CD if you didn't have a floppy.

 

[32103940]

ive run into such a problem before. i have never found a good solution.

though you can probably get your disk to work one way. hook it up to a working system, go into windows and format the 320gb. then put it back into your new system and the windows installer would almost definitely detect it.

gl.

 

[jaqie]

check your mobo manual about instructions for installing vista with a sata hard drive.

 

[mooseracing]

Originally posted by: 32103940
ive run into such a problem before. i have never found a good solution.

though you can probably get your disk to work one way. hook it up to a working system, go into windows and format the 320gb. then put it back into your new system and the windows installer would almost definitely detect it.

gl.

I had a similar issue but it was only with Vista, Xp formatted it and then Vista saw it without an issue.


Booted into windows (assuming you have a spare pc) can it see teh drive then if you add it in Disk Mgr

 

[n7]

Try changing things to IDE mode in the bios.

AHCI is said to be slower for the general user than IDE mode anyway.

 

[taltamir]

as n7 said.. check to see that AHCI is disabled...
check this thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2178007&enterthread=y

Nobody managed to get it to install with AHCI on, and it is the exact same board you have.