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    G73JW 2nd Drive Bay Not Working

    Discussion in 'ASUS Gaming Notebook Forum' started by Dacker, Jun 15, 2012.

  1. Dacker

    Dacker Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi there. I've had this G73JW with a single 750gb drive since last year, but the other day I bought a 128gb Samsung 830 SSD to place in the empty drive bay. After buying a hard drive caddy (something I feel should have been included with the laptop) I unplugged the laptop, removed the battery, popped open the cover and inserted the new SSD. Powered up and it doesn't get detected. I looked in the BIOS and it's not there.

    So, I removed the HDD from the other drive bay (the internal one) and inserted it in to the empty drive bay. Powered up and...nothing. Bottom line is it looks like the first drive bay isn't working. Does anyone know if there's something that needs to be done to activate the first drive bay or do you think I have a broken laptop?

    Thanks!

    -Dacker
     
    Dacker, Jun 15, 2012
    #1
  2. scottdrmyers

    scottdrmyers Notebook Consultant

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    It should work by default and detect whatever is plugged into it. Your tests were correct. Sounds like the sata port is dead.
     
    scottdrmyers, Jun 16, 2012
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  3. Dacker

    Dacker Notebook Enthusiast

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    Okay, now it's recognized, but here's how: I changed SATA Mode Selection from "AHCI" to "IDE." When I did that the Samsung 830 was recognized in SATA Port 4. As soon as I switch back to AHCI it remained recognized - strange.

    So, once that worked I just swapped the HDD and the SSD, so now the SSD is recognized as SATA Port 0, the DVD drive is SATA Port 1, and my old HDD is SATA Port 4. Bottom line, all I had to do was go in the BIOS and switch from AHCI to IDE and back again and the SSD magically shows up.

    -Dacker
     
    Dacker, Jun 16, 2012
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  4. scottdrmyers

    scottdrmyers Notebook Consultant

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    Totally makes no sense but whatever works lol.
     
    scottdrmyers, Jun 16, 2012
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