[RESOLVED] HD not recognized

I have a very odd case of a SATA hard drive which suddenly stopped being recognized by the computer. BIOS doesn't show that it exists and it will give a no bootable device error.

The odd thing is that the HD gets recognized on other computers without problems. It gets even odder though, the same troubled computer recognizes other SATA hard drives without changing any of the BIOS settings.

I have changed the BIOS settings to all the different SATA options, but still no luck. I'm pretty certain that this is a motherboard issue as the HD comes out ok on all the diagnostic checks I've done. But it's throwing me off that other SATA drives are recognized. I changed PSU's by the way, with no change.

Any suggestions?

Guessing that you ruled out the cable(s)?

Yes, I tried new SATA and power cables.

As long as it's being recognized in other computers at least you can remove the data from it. I would reformat the drive and see if the computer in question will recognize it. If not, I would replace the drive. If so, I would reinstall an operating system on it. That's a strange one for sure.

I'm not sure that formatting will help it because BIOS doesn't recognize it, but it's worth a try at this stage.

I'd be inclined to clone the drive and then just swap it out for another. I suspect that it's probably just one of those situations where two components that are at the opposite extreme limits of an acceptable tolerance won't play nicely together.

The drive isn't a recent Seagate 7200.11 unit is it?

No, it's a WD 160Gb SATA.
I know there were problems with the 1TB Seagate.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by usil

... WD 160Gb SATA...

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If/where applicable,
OPT1 jumper.

I tried that too.

After further tests, the motherboard stopped recognizing other HD's including an IDE drive. I've come to the conclusion that the motherboard is faulty.

Thanks all, case solved.