SATA HDD Problem

[PC-Thug]

Hi, I'm having a problem which I think is a little odd. 2 days ago I had been using 2 hard drives, 1 80GB IDE Seagate hd with Windows XP and my games & programs on it, the other was a SATA 160 GB Seagate which has my mp3s and videos etc on it. I had had that setup for about 2 years with no problems until yesterday, my 80GB IDE hard drive became corrupted, I don't know how either. But after spending a few hours trying to get it to work, I went and bought a new 160GB IDE Seagate hard drive which was to just be for the OS, programs & games.
I installed XP on it but my SATA drive isn't showing up in Windows. I'm using a Gigabyte 7N 400 Pro2 mobo and I installed the Sil3112 SATA driver but to no avail. The thing is I know how to get Windows to recognize the SATA drive if I'm willing to format the disk, but I have 60GB of data that hasn't been backed up yet, so I don't want to have to format the disk and lose everything. Any ideas on how to get XP to see my SATA drive?

Thanks,
Alex.

 

[mailpup]

Did you happen to choose the wrong revision of your motherboard? Revision 2.0 uses a Sil3512 SATA controller. Probably not but just in case.

 

[PC-Thug]

I just used the SATA controller on the CD that came with the motherboard. I have always used this driver and never had any problems before, so I am totally stumped now.

 

[mailpup]

You probably tried this already but check both ends of the power and data connections for tightness. These SATA connectors can come loose easily and could have done so while you were replacing the IDE drive.

 

[PC-Thug]

I had a look at the cables and I couldn't believe it. I had knocked the power cable out of the SATA drive and didn't notice.... I feel rather stupid now. Thanks for the advice.

 

[mailpup]

You're welcome. I'm glad it was something simple.