DescentBB

I got a new seagate sata hard drive and connected it, but it doesn't seem to be spinning (and it's not being detected in bios). Tried 2 power cables and 2 data cables.

Is it a bad drive or am I missing something?

I'd say it's bad drive. You're sure the power cables are connected properly? You have any other SATA devices that you know works and you can use those? You've probably already tried but it's worth a shot.

SATA drives (at least mine) don't spin up till they get a pulse over the data cable. Make sure the SATA power cable is properly connected, as is the data cable, and the controller is enabled in BIOS if it is the non native variety. If your board has multiple ports, including ports directly off the south bridge, try plugging the drive into a different port. Otherwise it is probably a bad drive.

I used a volt meter to see that power is getting to the drive. Tried plugging the data cable into different sata ports on the board. Used the 'detect' function on all the sata slots in the bios. The drive's still not spinning. I guess it's doa.

One thing, did you have a sata drive before you bought this new one? It's not beyond the realm of possibility that your sata ports might be bad. With hot weather and thunderstorms abounding current surges on the power lines increase this time of year. Sometimes wounded electronics can continue to work after a damaging event leaving one to wonder why did it die in the first place? This is all academic of course without more info. You could be talking about a brand spanking new system...

It could be that all my sata connections are bad. I don't have another sata device or sata capable machine so I can't test that theory.

One last thing, probably more for those that don't know than you as the issue is probably history by now. Their is a device called a sata dongle. It allows you to plug an IDE drive into a sata port. I'd recommend this as a quick troubleshooting device because you can hook your cd drive to it and test your sata port. They run $20-$25 last one I bought.

Actually, they're as cheap as $11 now.

Click here and scroll down a little.

one side question: Do sata use Primary/Slave jumper configs like IDE drives? I've never use a sata drv and i's curious.

Duper wrote:one side question: Do sata use Primary/Slave jumper configs like IDE drives? I've never use a sata drv and i's curious.

The only jumpers they have is to cap them at SATA 150 or not. The way they work is one drive to an interface.

De Rigueur wrote:It could be that all my sata connections are bad. I don't have another sata device or sata capable machine so I can't test that theory.

Make sure the ports are turned on in BIOS. Also some mobos designate certain SATA ports for RAID configs make sure it's in the standalone SATA connectors.

You can also download Seatools from Seagate and boot to a DOS like utility and test the drive. Software Here.

MD-2389 wrote:Actually, they're as cheap as $11 now.

Click here and scroll down a little.

I have a couple of these and they work flawlessly even hot plugging into an eSATA port. (You need a cable adapter to plug them into an eSATA port though.)

Does anyone remember if you have to have the IDE drive jumpered as a master? I don't think it hurts the drive but I have a vague inkling that \"cable select\" won't work. Anyone like to clarify

for cable select you need a cable capable of cable select.

All the IDE to SATA bridges I have require the drive to be set to master or they don't work. Won't cause any damage to the drive though.

fwiw, I got the replacement drive today. It spins up and bios detects it.