Vista does not detect new Sata

Hey guys.

Can anyone give me some info regarding my little issue here.

I have a Dell Inspiron 9400 and i thought it's about time to get rid of the tiny 80GB Hard-drive and bought a Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320Gb.
Unfortunately when i boot the system from the Vista DVD it does not recognises the drive and asks for drivers. I tried to find some on the seagate-page without any success.

so... i'm thankful for any kind of information

 

Ohh... I think I remember going through this once when I got my new drive too.
I think you have to select the 'New' option there and do something with it if I remember correctly.

Hope this helps!

 

Weird, I thought Vista had most of the SATA drivers....
You can get the SATA drivers (Intel 945PM?) from here....

 

that's what i thought too, but it doesn't seem to find a driver to recognise the drive.
i gonna give it a shot with the stuff you suggested.

cheers

 

Does your notebook have the i945PM chipset..?? and are you installing Vista 32bit or 64bit..??

 

well... stupid question, how do i find out?

and i got the 32 bit version

 

Does your notebook have a dedicated GPU, and which CPU is installed..?? (General Specs)

 

Does your HDD show up in the BIOS..??

 

T5600 @ 1.83GHz if that helps you any further

 

no it does not show up in the BIOS

 

OHH..!!
If it doesnt show up in the BIOS, it must be bad....are there any jumper settings applied to the HDD..??
Are you connecting it properly..??

 

yeah i know... so... any suggestions?

 

Is it retail or OEM, and can it be exchanged or replaced..??
Because if the drive is OK, it could be that your BIOS may not be supporting HDDs above a specific size..(maybe 200GB)

 

I also put in a new hard drive and i have a quick question. In the bios, it shows the name of my hard drive but it names a few things that are "not detected." is that bad? the point im asking this is because i cannot install my os via recovery disks and i am wondering if it is because my hd is not properly connected or even supported...

 

What is shown as not detected..??

OP: What is your notebook's current BIOS version..??

 

it is OEM, will dell be able to tell me what the maximum supported capacity is for my notebook?

 

Yeah, definitely....Call them up and ask them, what is the max supported HDD size..!! And what is your current BIOS version..??

 

First post http://www.fixya.com/support/t377333-dell_inspiron_9400_pc_notebook_replace

 

Bios- Boot agent v1.2.45 97-2007

USB FDD- not detected
DVD- no valid OS
USB CD- not detected
ATA HDDO- no valid OS
PCI LAN- no valid OS
USB HDD0- not detected
ATA HDD1- not detected


And on the note of your reply to my thread, i do not understand what you said...noob language is necessary for me.

 

yeah, i just called dell myself and they told me my notebook supports a maximum capacity of 100gb (how annoying is that)
i updated my BIOS to the newest A09 and still... same result

any other suggestions or should i forget about the upgrade?

 

Forget about it, if it can't support more than 100GB..!!
You can have a look at the Hitachi 100GB 7K200 or check out some external storage solutions..!!

 

well that's a pity. i already got a 500gb external drive and a 100gb internal doesn't make much of a difference at the end of the day.

thank you for your support.

have a good one,

cheers, roogee

 

The inspiron 9400 does not have that hard drive limitation! Something is wrong with your installation or your drive. Did you put the correct adapter on the new drive from your old one?

 

interesting to hear!!! but how come a Dell technician reckons its maximum supported capacity is 100gb?
i didn't have to change any adapter, just replaced the old 80gb SATA with the new 320gb.

 

Sometimes the manufacturers' specs only list whatever they have tested and not the theoretical achievable. However, 100GB max is wrong. The 9400 reviewed by NBR had a 120GB HDD.

SATA is a relatively new technology and there shouldn't be a built-in limit on the size.

as saying that the BIOS sees HDD0 which has no operating system.

I see a reference to ATA HDD1. Is the 9400 one of the notebooks which has a special HDD controller because there is the option to have two HDDs and a RAID configuration? Maybe the problem you have is that Vista is not recognising the controller?

John

 

ok, this seems to get more and more confusing!

but can anyone please tell me what i have to do that BIOS is recognising my new drive?

 

Is your Vista a Dell recovery disc that came with the computer or a standard Vista disc? If the former, then it should include all the right drivers. If the latter, then it would be worthwhile using vLite to slipstream in SP1 and all the relevant drivers for the 9400.

You could also go in a different direction and see if a Linux Live CD and see the hard disk.

I can't help with the BIOS except to suggest looking for any option to reset configuration data. As I noted above, I get the impression the BIOS can see the empty HDD so maybe it is OK.

John

 

I have seen 3 other forums till now, with users complaining they cannot install 250GB HDDs, but one guy installed a 200GB Travelstar but was having some sort of backup issues with it....
If you can exchange that drive for a 160/200GB one, try it out, or borrow a large HDD from someone who has a 2.5" SATA drive....
I have seen ads from various dealers selling 250GB and less, HDDs for the Inspiron 9400 but haven't come across any 320GB HDD specifically for the 9400, so it maybe worth a try, if it doesn't cost you anything..

The BIOS may not be hard-coded to support only 100GB HDDs, that is a major handicap for the notebook....!! Try larger HDDs if you can borrow one from somebody....

 

This was a problem faced by another guy, John..!! That guy seemed to have a Travelstar with bad sectors, since his BIOS diagnostic utility and Hitachi's diagnostics were giving errors for the HDD..!!

@Roogee cannot see his 320GB HDD in the BIOS..!! I don't think new HDDs fail so quick..

 

Thanks for the correction.

Perhaps the next step needs to be to try the 320GB in another computer or in a USB enclosure to check that it works OK.

John