Seagate Momentus 7200.3 not recognized by BIOS as bootable drive

Hello. I own a Dell Inspiron 1720 and I recently purchased a Seagate Momentus 7200.3 (320Gb) to upgrade my WD Scorpio 120Gb 5400rpm which was provided by Dell in the original configuration. I installed the Seagate HDD and attempted a clean Vista install, but the install program doesn't recognize the disk. Furthermore, I checked my BIOS configuration and the BIOS shows no internal hard drive installed! Any suggestions?

 

i'll spout forth the words "slipstream hardware driver" and hope that the guys who actually know what to do will say the same

 

But isn't slipstreaming used to make Windows recognize the HDD? What if my BIOS doesn't recognize the Seagate HDD??

 

Was the original drive a SATA drive?

Are you sure that it is fully connected? Sounds like it might not be, if the BIOS doesn't even recognize it.

The only two logical reasons that would cause that are bad connection or a DOA drive.

Your Dell have a SATA I or II spec? I know the 7200.3s are SATA II unless you jumper them, but I am unsure whether that would cause this issue or not...worth a look...

Check the connection first...

Edit: Did some digging, and I believe that your MOBO, like most Dells, came with a SATA I spec. Might need to force (jumper) the drive into SATA I before the BIOS will recognize it.

Even my Dad's three month old Studio 17 (approx $1100) has a SpecI HDD...my 6 month old Aspire One (approx $325) has a SpecII...go figure...

 

The original drive is a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 120Gb @5400rpm (SATA). I tried the HD on a friend's Toshiba with an Intel Mobile PM965 Express chipset and its BIOS detected the Seagate HD without jumper. Would there be any reason why my Dell mobo does not accept jumpered (to 1.5Gbps) SATA2 disks?

 

So you have the drive jumpered when you install it in your laptop? It should detect it, I would think. I just did both of my parent's Dells without issue. Mom's is a couple years old, too.

Are you getting a good connection, then?

 

I would also check the connection especially since it appears it requires a special connector according to this link

http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=6&chapter=0

 

Good point. I forgot about that stupid "interposer". Definitely make sure that the end that connects to the MOBO is secure; it took me a couple of tries with my Dad's. Can seem connected, but really it won't be. Check by wiggling/gently tugging it. Should be obvious when you check it, and hopefully that will be the issue.

What happens if you reinstall the old drive?

 

My BIOS finally detected my HDD!!!! Apparently the interposer was not connecting correctly with the mobo HDD terminal. Thanks a lot to everyone who replied to my thread!

 

No problem. It usually winds up being a lot more simple than we try to make it...

 

hey guys, i just registered
my computer seems to have a similar problem, my hard drive is a seagae momentus 7300.3 rpm 120 GB hard drive for dell latitude d630. It was working fine - probably a year old or more. I was working on it coupl of days ago. I put the laptop in sleep mode, then when i urned it on, it couldn't find internal HDD. keeps happening. I looked at this post, but it is for inspiron...so can anyone help me

I don't know what th SATA was, probably ATA t begin w/ not AHCI.

I tried all methods, found a quirk. On the pin area of the hard drive, there are three groups. One is a big group of embedded pins, the other is a small group and the third is sticking out pins. In the hard drive bay, there are only two ports, both for the embedded pins, can't find any for the sticking out pins.

I really need to fix this...am a high school student. I am doing Robotics and I have to have the laptop.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Could be dead if it was just working fine a few days ago. Do you have an enclosure or desktop to do tests on it?

 

Hi

I have a similar problem as well.

Mine is a Lenovo 3000 V100 with 62ETB9WW BIOS and
01.B2 Embedded Controller versions. My previous harddrive is a SATA-1 Fujitsu 120GB 5400 rpm.

1. How to jumper this 7200.3 to force it to SATA-1 only?
2. This Lenovo model doesn't need the interposer like the Dell 1720. I removed the caddy from my old Fujitsu drive and put it on this 7200.3 and plug it into the SATA connector. The old Fujitsu was detected just fine, but not the Momentus. Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Will