PC not recognising new internal hard drive

I've added and extra hard drive because I'm always low on disk space but
I can't get the PC to recognise the new drive.

Dell Inspirion 531 with Vista Home Premium 32 bit.
In the BIOS settings are as follows:
SATA 0: Hard drive
SATA 1: DVD drive
SATA 2: None
SATA 3: None

SATA 2 and 3 are greyed out and I don't know how to change it.


--
zambeezi

Hi,

A) Is it recognized properly in the system BIOS? If not, check the settings
there first.

b) If it is, then what does disk manager (diskmgmt.msc) have to say about
it? Have you partitioned and formatted yet?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"zambeezi" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:51d227974d9d077270b61d4a64ec2c4f@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> I've added and extra hard drive because I'm always low on disk space but
> I can't get the PC to recognise the new drive.
>
> Dell Inspirion 531 with Vista Home Premium 32 bit.
> In the BIOS settings are as follows:
> SATA 0: Hard drive
> SATA 1: DVD drive
> SATA 2: None
> SATA 3: None
>
> SATA 2 and 3 are greyed out and I don't know how to change it.
>
>
> --
> zambeezi

Go into your BIOS and enable the second SATA controller. Your motherboard
manual will tell you how.

The screen you see when when you start your machine will tell you which key
to press to access the BIOS, but you need to be quick.


"zambeezi" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:51d227974d9d077270b61d4a64ec2c4f@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> I've added and extra hard drive because I'm always low on disk space but
> I can't get the PC to recognise the new drive.
>
> Dell Inspirion 531 with Vista Home Premium 32 bit.
> In the BIOS settings are as follows:
> SATA 0: Hard drive
> SATA 1: DVD drive
> SATA 2: None
> SATA 3: None
>
> SATA 2 and 3 are greyed out and I don't know how to change it.
>
>
> --
> zambeezi

Thanks for the advice. I've been trying various settings in the BIOS
without any luck. The drive is detected in the BIOS but I am still
having trouble getting the master/slave jumper setup correct.

Just want to add some info:
Asus M2N61-AX motherboard (Asus website is down for maintenance)
WD2500AAJS (Hard drive with OS on)
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B (want this for storage)

I've been on the Hitachi and Westrn Digital sites but I am having
trouble to get the info I need.
I basically need a master/slave setup guide for dummies....


--
zambeezi

There are no master/slave jumper settings for SATA drives. Each controller
can run two drives - master and slave - but there is only one physical data
connection to each drive so the drives do not need to be jumpered. SATA 0 &
1 will be master and slave on the first controller and SATA 2 & 3 master and
slave on the second.

If there are jumpers on the drives they should not be changed unless you
know the technical reasons to change them and those reasons apply to you.

If SATA 2 & 3 are greyed out at boot it is because the controller is
disabled and it needs to be enabled as a standard SATA controller. This will
probably be in Advanced - Integrated peripherals in your BIOS.

You rnotherboard is not listed or supported by Asus. Your system appears to
be a Dell Inspiron 531 and you should look on the Dell site for support.



"zambeezi" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:fc552f8d3a77cace5219d05d8ecc2328@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> Thanks for the advice. I've been trying various settings in the BIOS
> without any luck. The drive is detected in the BIOS but I am still
> having trouble getting the master/slave jumper setup correct.
>
> Just want to add some info:
> Asus M2N61-AX motherboard (Asus website is down for maintenance)
> WD2500AAJS (Hard drive with OS on)
> Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B (want this for storage)
>
> I've been on the Hitachi and Westrn Digital sites but I am having
> trouble to get the info I need.
> I basically need a master/slave setup guide for dummies....
>
>
> --
> zambeezi

On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:02:39 -0600, zambeezi <guest@unknown-email.com>
wrote:

>I basically need a master/slave setup guide for dummies....

You need more than that: SATA drives don't require jumper settings.

Cody Jarrett;949184 Wrote:
> On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:02:39 -0600, zambeezi <guest@xxxxxx-email.com>
> wrote:
> > > >
> > >I basically need a master/slave setup guide for dummies.... > >
>
> You need more than that: SATA drives don't require jumper settings.

Did not know that but now I do


--
zambeezi

I got it working in the end...

In Disk Management (Administrative Tools) I was able to select the
drive, assign a letter and format it.


--
zambeezi