GA-H57M-USB3

[ufc205]

Hey everyone I purchased the GA-H57M-USB3 and I have a 500gb sata hard drive that I am trying to use with it. I am trying to install windows 7 but it cannot detect any hard drive.. I can see the hard drive in the bios but when it goes to choose the partition to install windows 7 on it cannot detect any drive. I see in the manual for a raid configuration that you need to load a special driver on the disc I have tried all of the drivers and none of them will detect a drive. I have tried connecting the drive to the h57 sata ports and the sata2 ports and loading all the drivers and still no luck detecting any drive in windows install.. please help

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the forum. If you are only using one hard drive you shouldn't need to load any RAID drivers or suchlike. It is more likely that the BIOS settings are wrong. Check to make sure that you are booting form your cd/dvd drive first and then the hard drive. Next make sure that the hard drive is listed as the first hard drive in the list.

 

[ufc205]

Hey Thanks for the reply, yes it is only one hard drive and I dont see which settings are incorrect in the bios its not the boot order causing me issues as it will go into the windows setup but it just wont detect any drives in there, I can see the hard drive in the bios, also its brand new. Should I be setting the SATA mode to IDE or AHCI and the SATA Controller mode to IDE or ACHI or IDE/RAID either way I've tried all the combinations and still cannot get windows 7 to detect a hard drive. This isnt my first time installing windows or building a computer either I am thinking maybe the board or hard drive could possibly be defective? Please help

[Dark Mantis]

The safest setting for the drive is IDE in the BIOS. Try a new cable it could be faulty even though the BIOS recognises the drive. Also try moving it to another port.

[ufc205]

I have tried both already with no luck

[absic]

Can you format/initialise the HDD in another PC?

Sometimes Windows 7 like Windows Vista, struggles to see new drives.

[ufc205]

I will give that a shot when I get home, but it seems odd that its able to detect it in the bios but not the windows install,

[absic]

Yes I know and I'm not saying this is definitely the problem but, there is a known issue with the way Windows interacts with some HDD's during install. I will try and track down the relevant info for you.

[ufc205]

I do remember the bios said it failed during loading at once boot and recovered itself but I think that was caused by me turning the power on and off too quickly. But im wondering if maybe the board is defective? The bios now says its ga-h55m-usb3 and the box it came in is ga-h57m-usb3 ...

[absic]

Well you can always re-flash BIOS just to make sure everything is OK there first, as it could have become corrupted if you turned your PC off to quickly before.

I would still format the new HDD in another PC before trying to install Windows though. It won't hurt it and it will eliminate that as a possible problem.

[Dark Mantis]

Yes I would agree with what absic has been saying to you. It could well be an initialisation problem.

[ufc205]

Hey guys i put the drive into another pc and was able to format it and copy files to and from it sucessfully so i know the drive is working... i flashed the bios and still no luck in getting the windows 7 installer to recognize any hard drive yet it is recognized fine in the bios.... I am at a loss here...

[ufc205]

update I just tried a smaller 80GB hard drive and it was able to recognize it in the bios and windows 7 setup as well...... the drive windows 7 installer isnt finding is a 500 GB WD Cavier Blue which is brand new but I like mention in the previous post it was recongized in another computer and formatted and files copied back and forth ok... I am very confused now

[Dark Mantis]

I would say it is a BIOS problem. Try reflashing your BIOS making sure that it is the correct one for the board(the revision number is marked on the bottom left of the motherboard just underneath the slots). If that doesn't work then I think you have a faulty motherboard on your hands.

[ufc205]

update I ended up taking the 500gb HDD and putting it into another machines and then creating a second partition and copying files back and fourth to it. Once the 2nd partition was added it was able to detect the drive... seems kind of strange but working now..