Troubleshoot New HD not recognized in Bios

[Rozesky2]

Briefly explain your current issue(s)

I bought a new wd laptop hd and the bios does not see it

Steps taken to resolve, but have been unsuccessful

I tried other hds

I was restarting a computer and when it booted up it said to put in a bootable disk. So I tried a 160 gig hd with xp on it and it found it.
But when I tried not 1 but 2 new 500 gig WD hd it does not see them in the bios.
This is a windows 7 home premium computer. I am not sure what to do to get the laptop to recognize the hds.

Also I put the 2 wd harddrive one at a time as a secondary hd in the desktop computer I had and it would not recognize them either

I am not sure how to fix this

 

[Rozesky2]

The new hd has win 7 on it now but it does not see it in the bios either.
I was just thinking both these HDS are 500 gig...is it possible I need a smaller drive?
the original one was 320 g
I could but a 320 at bestbuy today I saw one out there yesterday but I thought 500 would
be a nice up grade

 

[Rozesky2]

buy a 320 I mean not but ...the ones I put in that worked were smaller than 500

 

[iTrendsNET]

My recommendation is to not waste your time loading Windows 7 on one of the drives if you will be doing it on another machine and then try to get it to work in the Toshiba laptop. This works sometimes if the other machine is also an Intel i5, but otherwise it may just blue screen like crazy as Windows tunes itself during the install for the particular machine for which it was installed.

 

[iTrendsNET]

I'd still go for the upgrade. Just get a different brand / model. 500 or even 750 GB should not be a problem. Get what you can afford.

 

[Rozesky2]

My recommendation is to not waste your time loading Windows 7 on one of the drives if you will be doing it on another machine and then try to get it to work in the Toshiba laptop. This works sometimes if the other machine is also an Intel i5, but otherwise it may just blue screen like crazy as Windows tunes itself during the install for the particular machine for which it was installed.

You are so right itrendsnet ...I just wanted to see if the bios recognized it with win 7 on it...Now if I used that drive someother time I will just reinstall win 7 with that computer.

OK so the new plan is to buy a different brand of hd and see if that will work
BTW....something else to think about ..on the original hd that crashed...that I cant get my desktop to see. Is there anyway I can get to the data to save it for my friend. She did not backup of course .. when will people learn

 

[Vasudev]

try disabling uefi boot sequence or try reformatting your HDDs to GPT style disk.

 

[iTrendsNET]

RE: Attempt to salvage data off the crashed hard drive. Check BestBuy or a Fry's if there are any near you for a USB hard drive adapter kit. I have one that comes with assorted data cables and power cords so that I can plug any type drive into a desktop as an external USB drive. If the drive is not total toast, that may work. Alternatively, you could buy a very cheap external enclosure that you can use to try that drive as an external USB drive. My point here is I have the best success with recovering data if I can connect proper USB and power cables to the drive. Buy a cheap enclosure and you are only out $15 to $20.

If you determine the drive has totally failed (circuitry or heads crashing and she would have heard a clicking noise before failure) then I would not recommend sending the drive to one of the data recovery services. They are very high priced and some are total scam artists. As a last resort, data can sometimes be recovered from a failed drive if you put it in a zip lock bag and then stick it in the freezer before you try to recover the data. Google that for more info.

 

[donetao]

Hi ! You could also recover your data with a Linux CD. I like Puppy Love!
Here's all you need to know about it!
https://www.winhelp.us/recover-files-using-puppy-linux.html

 

[donetao]

This is a great thread. Thanks for sharing your problem here on MT @Rozesky2 . I have learned a lot.
I'm now wondering about my Toshiba Lap top. I have two Dos CD's. One is seagate dos and one is WD dos. Neither one will recognize my Hitachi internal HD. Very strange. Your thread got me to thinking about that. I think there's some thing up with Toshiba and HD's and Hitachi It will be very interesting to see if a different brand will work for you!
PS It's very refreshing to see a thread like yours here on MT. I get a little bored with just security and malware threads
Thanks for sharing! Great to see all the team work here on MT.

 

[Rozesky2]

Well not sure why but I am glad it happened. I went to staples and they actually carry toshiba hds. So I bought one, a 500 g sata 3 and the bios recognized it right away. So looks like I will be in business to install windows 7 on a new hd....dont have time to try it yet ...I am making homemade rolls for Christmas eve.....I will be back when I can tell you if it allowed the win 7 install...it should though

 

[Rozesky2]

Maybe I missed something, and if so then please forgive...

BUT YOU HAVE TO format these drives even if they are for data alone.

That is why it saw the XP drive, it is already formatted and you installed a OS on it.

Unhook all drives except one WD New HD and run Win 7 disk, select custom, and format the drive, now do the 2nd WD HD.

No connect your orig hard drive with the OS on it and hook up the 2 WD HD as data drives and you should be good to go, will boot up and see 2 data drives.

rodm177....thanks for the info a formatting the secondary drive to see it. I found it in drive management in windows and formatted it. That new hd is now ready to be a data drive or for me to put win 7 on it. I think the orginal hd is bad so now I am working on how to get the data off of it

 

[Rozesky2]

I see some very good comments here from the team! I agree with @BoraMurdar - the HDDs should be recognized in BIOS whether formatted or not. Ditto for if BIOS cannot see them, Windows or a Linux CD should also not see them.

The make / model of the laptop is crucial information to allow trouble shooting such problems, so thanks for providing. It helps us confirm your machine does take SATA and this information is also helpful in allowing us to determine if the motherboard in the machine has any known issues. Fortunately, you have a great laptop and Toshiba is what I usually recommend and buy.

Like @donetao stated, thus could point to a motherboard problem. However, a quick Internet search does not bring up any major issues with the Toshiba L650, so unless you had some recent storms with major power surges that could have inflicted damage to the original HDD as well as to the MB, I think you should be OK.

If it were me, my next step would be to return the WD drives and purchase any other quality brand to confirm if that makes a difference. WD are fine and I have installed many through the years. I suppose it is possible that your laptop may just not like that particular model.

So itrendsNet it was like we suspected it didnt like the WD brand ...even though it like the 160 g older one. I am no in the process of installing win 7 on a new toshiba 500 g sata 3 hd the laptop recognized

 

[Rozesky2]

since this is sata you might need to install a driver like the Intell Rapid Storage Technology Driver
before the bios can see the hard drive

so you would need to go to Toshiba website and look up your computer in support downloads and see if there
is a controller driver there

if there is you would need to install this from the Windows 7 DVD

google how to install drivers as you install Windows 7

during the install of Windows it gives you the chance to add drivers then



James

HI James that was interesting what you said about the RAID drivers and I did not know where to install them from the win 7 install ...but I got lucky and the bios does recognize the new toshiba 500 g hd...right now I am installing win 7 on it...I will let everyone know how it goes

 

[jim lin]

it's very nice that you got it sorted out

i read somewhere not long ago that like 4 out of 10 new WD Blue or Black (doin't remember) 500gb Hard Drives are bad from the factory



James

 

[ImtheBest]

I would try taking the CMOS battery out for 10-15 Seconds. Then put it back in it will put the motherboard back to default settings. I know i had to do it and it worked for me i forgot why but if it works all defaults should be back to factory settings. Also i would look at the brand manufacture vander where the CMOS battery is on your laptop. Its not that hard very easy might be little difficult at first time but once out and knowing how easy. Then try to see if u can get Windows 7 install again.

 

[Rozesky2]

ok update
Win 7 is not installed on the new toshiba 500 g hd. I am doing all the updates.
The next problem I will try to fix..if it is possible is the original HD will not recognized
as a secondary drive so I can retrieve the data from it...when I have more time I am going to
try using linux puppy as a live cd to get to the hd...
hope it works..too bad people never seem to back up their data

I would try taking the CMOS battery out for 10-15 Seconds. Then put it back in it will put the motherboard back to default settings. I know i had to do it and it worked for me i forgot why but if it works all defaults should be back to factory settings. Also i would look at the brand manufacture vander where the CMOS battery is on your laptop. Its not that hard very easy might be little difficult at first time but once out and knowing how easy. Then try to see if u can get Windows 7 install again.

I was about to try the cmos battery but since the new hard drive is working I will skip it for now

 

[ImtheBest]

That's good everything is working right then Happy Holidays to u

 

[Rozesky2]

@

That's good everything is working right then Happy Holidays to u

Yes at this point ...the computer is up and working installing all the win 7 updates....no I just have to see if I can
resurrect the original hd enough to recover the data

 

[donetao]

Hi! here's what i use to recover data from a HD!
http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter...19476728&sr=8-2&keywords=ide/sata+usb+adapter

 

[Paul B.]

These are sata drives? Sata is backward compatible only one generation. A new sata 3 drive will not play on a sata 1 setup.

Probably the first thing I would do is a BIOS update, which might solve that problem and others. BIOS updates always carry risk, however.

Edit: sorry, I didn't see this thread had multiple pages, and the solution had been found.