Vista Won't Detect My HD (Ci7 GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5)

I recently purchased parts for my new computer. Core i7 920, 'GIGABYTE
GA-EX58-UD5'
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813128362),
'Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard
Drive - OEM, '
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288)'Microsoft
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk
DSP OEI DVD - OEM, and other parts. My BIOS can detect my HD perfectly.
However, when I try to install Vista, I get to the part where it asks
me for the product key. I entert the key, Vista asks me where I want to
install the OS, and I'm at a blank screen. I do not have any places for
me to install the OS. It's not detecting my HD. It then asks for
drivers for mass storage devices, but I've never heard of HD using
drivers.
' (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116488)


--
ctrlaltdelx2

Open up your case and check that you have the SATA cable connected to the
SATA2_0 port (controlled by the onboard South Bridge) and not any of the
ports that run from the Gigabyte/JMB controller.

One other thing - can you check your BIOS settings - how are the SATA ports
configured?

The HD is connected to SATA2_0 port, my DVD drive is connected to
SATA2_1 port I believe. The BIOS setting is whatever that came default,
which has SATA RAID/ACHI Mode Disabled, SATA Port0-3 Native Mode
Disabled, onboard Sata/IDE Device (the GSATA controller) Enabled.

It just feels like I need a driver for the HD for some reason, but I've
never heard of driver for a hard drive...


--
ctrlaltdelx2

It's not a case of the HD needing drivers...
it's your chipset/SATA controller

Right at the beginning of your installation
you are asked if you want to install add'l drivers...
at that point you'd need to feed the SATA drivers to the installer.

Unlike XP...they are not required to be on a floppy...
a USB thumb drive will work. Not sure...you may be able to feed them from
the cd too.

The drivers of course will be on the cd that came with the mobo...
the manual should have full documentation

Yea I'm having the same problem as Ctrlaltdel2x. I have the same vista
they are trying to install. I have my hard drive connected to Sata2_0. I
have a gigabyte motherboard as well and a sata hard drive just a western
digital brand.
When it gets to which HDD drive to put it on for the install there is
nothing there.
It says to load drivers for the HDD, so I did try putting the
motherboard cd it came with but that does nothing.

Is it possible you have to put some kind of driver file of the
manufacturers website onto a CD and try uploading that as the driver?


--
Giggidy

Is the drive you are trying to install connected to the SATA #1 connector on
the MOBO? If not I suggest that try with it connected there.
In any case try with 2GB and after you get it working with 2GB then upgrade
to 4GB.

yes i tried that and had no luck. I've been searching on the internet
for answers and there seems to be no solution =/. It's odd because all
my parts are vista ready, and the motherboard cd it came with doesn't
help detect the drive. And i can't find downloadable storage drivers to
see if it will help vista "see" the drive.
I'm kinda lost on what else to try. Last thing i haven't done is using
just 2 gigs of ram when installing. But my bro was able to install with
4gb so i don't see how there might be an issue there.


--
Giggidy

Your new HD is likely a SATA drive. Not all M/B's have native support for
these drives and specific drivers must be installed prior to the Vista
installer being able to even see the drive.

Most drivers are part of an .exe file or a .zip file. These drivers have to
be extracted to wherever you are trying to install them from (floppy, USB or
CD drive). I suggest you place them in the "root" of the drive and not in a
sub folder.

Then, when the Vista installer asks for the drivers, browse to the drive
where the extracted files are located. If still no go, you have the wrong
drivers for your M/B.

The driver is for the MOBO controller. Get them from the MOBO cd. Often I
have found them in something called 'make disk'

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/M...ProductID=2958
You need the last driver in the SATA RAID section. For Vista it can be on
any medium the BIOS can access: floppy, CD/DVD or USB drive.

I have done most of what you guys have suggested. I have used the mobo
CD to install the SATA drivers, still nothing was detected. I have
downloaded all of the drivers from the gigabyte website for the chipset
and SATA drivers, both 32bit and 64bit, and still no hard drive was
detected.

I have fixed the problem with the hard drive, however. I decided to
just install Windows XP and upgrade to Vista. During the XP
installation process, it detected the HD so I was able to format it. I
got an error while installing XP, however. IRQL_LESS_THAN_EQUAL or w/e
it was. I gave up. However, as a last ditch of effort, I tried
installing Vista gain, and voila! It now sees my HD. I am now in the
middle of installing Vista, and am hoping everything will go smoothly.


--
ctrlaltdelx2

[johnjuan]

I ran into this with a ST3500320AS and set the SATA address to disable in the RAID settings in BIOS - now Vista sees it. I thought it was driver related and perhaps adding the SATA RAID drivers could have fixed as well - for this installation, I don't require RAID so I have verified this fix.

[prim]

Anyone having this problem but no solution found plaese visit this forum, a lot of drives ST3500320AS (1TB an 1,5TB too) around the world are having the same issue. It seems to be a defective firmware (specially SD15 version) which let the drive in a "busy" state.

I had this same issue w/ a Gigabyte board.

The sata connectors did the trick for me.

I joined up just to post this since I had so many freaking issues. WTF
mate. Why wouldn't this be noted in the mobo manual?

I'm an OEM System Builder for christ sakes - I just rolled out 2x
mirrors and 1x raid 5 and 1x raid 6, all vista 64, and this is the 1st
one with this issue. WTF mate.

Good rule of thumb to add for the masses: keep your RAID on your
primaries, eh?

I sure hope the Hybrid CrossFireX isn't this difficult. :|

EDIT:

To add to the above post, it's true the Seagate 7200.11 (or .12?) had a
horrible bricking issue.

I'm so glad I didn't buy any of the drives. Fry's had them on sale
CHEAP - 1tb for $69.99.

Some things are worth the money; a better performing HDD is one of
them.