New hdd and no boot

[mcfstep]

Just picked myself up a new Western Digital 2tb green caviar drive to use as a storage drive.

Plugged it in, turned on the computer and nothing happens, just hands - doesn't even get to the boot screen. Tried in different sata ports on the mobo, tried different cables but no luck.

I don't get the impression the disk is at fault, potentially my mobo doesn't support a disk that size? Running Windows 7 and mobo is an abit ip35e

Any thoughts??

[Splash]

Make sure your BIOS boot order points at your system disk before the new one.

[mcfstep]

Computer doesn't even get to POST - just blank screen from the get go so can't get into bios settings to confirm boot order

[mcfstep]

As for the drive being set to slave, there are no jumpers on the drive - there are 2 jumper options detailed on the disk, 1 is for multi partitioning and 1 os for Windows XP single partitioning - instructions say to leave without jumpers for all other OS configurations.



I have a sata to usb converter and this doesn't even bring anything up - I'm starting to think the drive might be dead.



Only other thing I can think of is that because it's a much lower powered device that I need to change the power settings in bios? Could it be getting too much power?

[Splash]

If you've installed a disk and it prevents your machine from POSTing then I'd be looking at the disk being up the swanny. Is there a BIOS update available?

EDIT - the bit about there being no jumper is fine, I was assuming it was an SATA disk anways. Check the boot order in the BIOS, but as I said it looks like a duff disk.

[Behemoth]

Definatley seems like a DOA drive to me. Try it in another PC to make certain though.

[mcfstep]

Have tried on another PC and the drive works - do you think there could be a setting in my bios that states nothing more than a certain storage size is accepted?

[Behemoth]

Whats your motherboard ? It might be that you need to flash the BIOS in order to get it to accept the new hard drive.

I assume that your BIOS does at least detect the drive ?

[peterb]

Whats your motherboard ? It might be that you need to flash the BIOS in order to get it to accept the new hard drive.

I assume that your BIOS does at least detect the drive ?

He isn't getting to POST so the BIOS isn't starting.

The drive will take the power it requires, but maybe the PSU in the machine isn't up to it and the additional drive is overloading it.

Does the USB adaptor have it's own power supply? If it does, then Windows 7 should certainly see it. If it doesn't, is there provision for an external power supply for the caddy?

The other possibility is if the drive is (and from the jumper settings you describe, it sounds as if it may be) a WD "Advanced Format" drive with 4K sectors, which might confuse the BIOS during POST (although it should still detect the presence of a drive) and even then, Win7 should be able to access through a USB interface.

[Behemoth]

Sorry didn't see that part. That will teach me for reading things quickly.

[mcfstep]

I can't tell if the mobo detects the drive as I don't get any information on the screen, doesn't even POST.

In terms of power supply, I don't know the exact model off the top of my head but it's definatly up to the task although pretty much all bar 2 of the sata style power connectors are in use (has some of the molex as well but only one is in use for the cd drive.)

But it runs fine with 2 other drives, its if I take one of these out and add the new 2tb drive (that's supposedly a low power consumer) it has issue.

I'm using an ABIT IP35E mobo

[jim]

With respect to Peter's query, what's the name of the drive you bought? Eg WD20EADS, WD20EARS, so on

[mcfstep]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/183971

WD20 EARS

[SLS]

Just to clarify... if you unplug the HDD the computer does boot to BIOS?

[oolon]

See if your computer posts with just the new drive installed, first on the same channel as your orginal hard drive and then on a different one. If it posts both times, I would consider if the power supply is at its limit. Otherwise it could still be the power supply but more likely your motherboard does not like the drive, try some bios updates. Not all external USB caddies support 2TB drives test the caddy with another computer as well? What size is your power supply, want additional cards devices to you have plugged in?

Do you have the motherboard speaker plugged in are there any bleeps?