Sata Harddrive issue: not detecting

[noreturn]

My computer recently shutoff completely and when I tried to restart I was getting error messages about not finding Windows system32 files. Thinking the Hard drive was gone; I went and bought a new Sata hard drive and continued to have the same problem and the drive was not listed in any of the Bios settings nor in the boot up. I had installed the Data Lifeguard tools (western Digital) and even it did not detect my hard drive. I have recently tested an IDE hard drive and it worked perfectly on the machine. I dont know if my sata controllers on the mobo are broke or if im failing to load something. So basically I have 2 Sata hard drives that are not found on the computer (1 with windows loaded that had worked perfectly, 1 clean) and can not seem to get any further progress on fixing this comp.

Any help on resolving the issue would be greatly appreciated.

 

[zephead]

if a known good drive does not show up in BIOS, even though the drive controller is turned on, you have youirself a problem with the onboard drive controller. in that case, the motherboard is bad and will need replacement. also, try updating your bios to the latest version before discarding the mobo.

 

[Rick]

not finding Windows system32 files.

If you were getting this error message, your drive is working. It may not be working well, but it was working. Can you remember the exact error message?

I went and bought a new Sata hard drive and continued to have the same problem and the drive was not listed in any of the Bios settings nor in the boot up.

No, this isn't the same problem, according to your description. So we can't assume the previous drive was not detected. If it gives you the error above, it was working and detected at some point.

So basically I have 2 Sata hard drives that are not found on the computer

Many SATA controllers have their own BIOS. Drives connected to these SATA controllers will not appear in your regular system BIOS for some systems. If you have a SATA BIOS, check it out (usually appears just after the system BIOS screen). It may also be that your system board has 2 SATA controllers. If there's another group of SATA ports, try those, because one controller may be integrated into the system BIOS and the other may have its own.

Make sure you try different ports, double check all of your cables including both power and SATA and try different cables when everything else looks good. SATA controllers won't just 'go bad' without reason, except for very rare occurances.