WD5000AAKS (sata) not recognised properly in bios

[The_Skew]

Hi again.

Sooo....
I've got a western digital Caviar Blue 500gb sata drive which refuses to Appear in any of the following :
Control panal>admin tools> Computer Management>Disk Management
My Computer>Hardware>Device Manager
(Western digital's) Data LifeGaurd Tools 11.2 for windows
(Western digital's) Data LifeGaurd Tools 11.2 for Dos
(Western digital's) Data LifeGaurd Diagnostic 11.2 for Dos

I'm trying to figure out if this thing is a fugly paperweight or if it's a mobo/bios issue(or something else)

I recieved this Hdd in a box of computer stuff along with a 500gb Seagate barracuda 7200 11 and other stuff, so I don't know for sure if it's corrupt/fried or how its formatted.

What I do know however Is...

1. When I connect it to the second sata port on my mobo and start up It spins/seeks while the computer POSTs and will continue to "run" untill windows finishes loading then it stops and is, to my knowledge "invisible" to the system

2. when it's connected, the computer starts with the "Ram test" screen which is normally skipped.
During this process the computer complains of an error with "fourth ide primary master"

3. The barracuda 500 gb is working perfectly on the same data cable, power connector, sata port, leading me to believe that the problem is not with them or with my os/bios not supporting the drives large capacity.

4. If I enter the bios setup screen with my main(windows installation) drive connected to the first sata port and the WesternDigital connected to the second one.
And enter "standard cmos settings" it says:

SATA 1: HARD DRIVE
SATA 2 NOT DETECTED

However

If I scroll down to SATA 2 and hit enter, to go to settings for that "empty" controller, it changes its mind, reading:


DEVICE: HARD DISK
VENDOR:
SIZE: 0MB
LBA MODE: NOT SUPPORTED
BLOCK MODE: NOT SUPPORTED
PIO MODE: NOT SUPPORTED
ASYNC DMA: NOT SUPPORTED
ULTRA DMA: NOT SUPPORTED
SMART : NOT SUPPORTED

A NEW DEVICE HAS BEEN DETECTED PLEASE REBOOT

Ok so if I hit esc now to return to the previous menu it now reads:

SATA 1: HARD DRIVE
SATA 2 HARD DRIVE


This dosnt really help though, because once I "save and exit" from the bios setup, windows still dosn't detect the drive.
Nor do the bootable DOS cds "LifeGaurd tools", or "LifeGaurd diagnostic" (needless to say the windows environment version of "tools" isn't any better)

5. fun with jumper settings:
I believe my mobo is sata 1 only as per this from the manual:
The Southbridge integrates a Serial ATA host controller that is SATA v1.0 compliant, and
supports 1.5Gb/s bandwidth for each serial port. It provides dual independent IDE channels
and each of them support PIO mode 0,1,2,3,4 and multiword DMA mode 0,1,2 and UltraDMA
133/100/66.

I tried limiting the drive to 1.5 gb/s operation by adding a jumper according to this link
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....i=&p_topview=1

Same result

I tried "default 1" (no jumper) as well as "default 2" as per the diagram on this page http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....p?p_faqid=1409

Same result




Ummmm that's about all I can think of other than to say that sombody told me to change a setting in the bios to make it recognise the sata drive as ide?
Not sure how to do this/if I should, as I didn't find that setting when I was looking at the bios setup, and the seagate works without doing this.

I wanted to attach my mobo manual, but it's to large(2.5mb) so i'll link to it instead http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Dow...nuID=6&LanID=0
And as far as my bios(sorry I'm not real good at this part and I gathered this info from the bios setup utility)
Bios: AMI ro2-a2 exclusivly for acer
smbios: 2.3.3
bios date; 05/22/06


So any help getting this bad boy working would be greatly appreciated as always, and any information I've neglected to include I'll do my best rectify.

System specs for the pc in question are in my sig

[TriggerFinger]

As you said you are not sure if this is a dead drive or not... so far indications show you have a dead drive logic card. The card AFAIK identifies the drive to your My Computer. Yes, testing it on another computer makes the disk spin but still not recognized as if no drive is attached. My two cents... hearing it spin is not proof enough that it works.

[The_Skew]

What about the partial recognition in bios?

[TriggerFinger]

Yep.. including that one (logic card failures can be intermittent)... If you want to test thoroughly... put the drive in a disk enclosure (USB connected) and test it on other computers... computers that you know has BIOS that supports high capacity drives. Test it in several computers to be really sure that is not coincidence. And to be really sure about it, run the WD diagnostic to test the drive.

[The_Skew]

Ok will do (once I can lay hands on a usb enclosure)
thanks for a quick reply

[raptor_pa]

Whether this is the seagate or the WD you are talking about, the 0 MB detection indicates it is most likely a firmware issue. You can check the Seagate site for a firmware update, tho after it is bricked not sure if it will take correctly. The WD if it is indeed firmware will need professional recovery, not a simple flash. The Seagate error is just lucky it can be handled by a simple flash.

[The_Skew]

Yeah, no the seagate is fine( formatted and running right now)
It's the WD unfortunately that is experiencing errors.
So, do you think it could be returned to working order at my local pc repair shop?

[raptor_pa]

Usually beyond the abilities of your typical PC shop. The reprogramming requires a $15000 pice of hardware software combo ( although there is a competetive product for around $5000 that is supposed to do it too I'll know next week have one on order). This type of repair is usually handled by data recovery houses. Local PC shops generally can do logical recoveries using software, but don't have the equipment or the personell specializing in Hard Drive recovery. As with any HD failure, the drive is always suspect after the repair.

[The_Skew]

Ok thanks
guess I'll just have to get another hdd for my project.