[Al Tarket]

i finally got my hdd sata 2, spinpoint f1 1tb however i do not have a clue if i got anything setup properly.

first time out after setting up the drive windows didn't detect it after going into administrative tools and resetting, the drive showed up after that and then i tried formatting the disk but nothing has been happening for a few minutes, i changed the cables around and see if anything else worked, tried again and still nothing. i consulted the help files and so on but to no avail. i read that i shouldn't connect the cables the wrong way i assume the data cables, problem for me was both connectors of the data cables are exactly the same.. so i do not know if they are in the right way.

so i assume many people here use sata hdd and can help me out.

[Fury]

problem for me was both connectors of the data cables are exactly the same.

It doesn't matter which end you plug into the drive and which end into the motherboard. However, some cables have differently designed connector on the other end for easy plug-in and unplugging, those cables should have clear indication which connector should be plugged into motherboard though.

If the drive is unformatted and unpartitioned (as new drives usually are) it won't be displayed in My Computer or Explorer. To partition and format your drive, you need to go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management.

If the drive does not show up in disk management, does the drive spin up when you turn the computer on? Is the drive recognized by your SATA controller (consult your motherboard manual if uncertain how to check)? Have you actually installed SATA drivers for your motherboard? XP doesn't have built-in SATA-drivers, by fluke it might detect something but most certainly won't work.

[Nuke]

he probibly neglected to hook up the power cable

it really gets me how much people still have problems with sata, its not the nightmare pata used to be, or hel forbid scsi. i remember when pata cables werent keyed, and you had to get out the magnifying glass and flashlight to read the tiny stampped 1 that indicated where pin 1 went. then you had to lign it up with the red stripe on the cable. then you had to set jumpers for whether the drive was slave or master and sometimes another to indicate two drives are connected. scsi drives had a device number set either by jumper or rotary switch, and you usually needed an add in card for those.

sata drives are pretty much idiot proof as far as connectors go. and the magikal thing, no ****ing jumpers.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

They could have made those connectors a bit better both for the power and SATA.  If you've ever tried to hook up 8 or 10 in one system you would know how easy it is to knock them off the back of the drive. 


Back to the original question.  Could be a BIOS issue.  Can your motherboard / controller support a 1 TB drive?  What version / support pack of Windows are you using?  I've seen some problems with XP SP1 and prior and SATA. 

[Nuke]

id rather they just use molex connectors for power. some of the older ones have those connectors, but i find it ridiculous that they had to revise psus to have a new connector that delivers the same kind of power. the sata cables themselves are somewhat cool. i have 3 sata drives in my computer (more than a terabyte of storage), but my case is designed for that many drives.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Some of the drives come with power converters too.  One of my server case holds something like 14 drives.  It really is a pain trying to get your hands in there to hook them up.  They do fall out with just a small tug on the wire.  It's especially hard If you have to install or replace one of the ones clear at the bottom of the case.    You have to get between all the other wires and then the fan and case wires as well. 

They should just make the cases with some sort of standard SATA / SAS bay you can just slide the drive into and be connected to at least the power without a wire. 

[Nuke]

ive built servers before, its always a general pain in the ass. especially rack mount units, damn those are impossible. they werent really network storage servers though, i think they were just domain controllers.

id love to see a desktop case with an easy modular sata rack. just insert drives and forget about it. but i dont think that would ever happen. then again these look cool. once you wire them up, you never have to worry about cables coming off. and no ****ing trays.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Except it's for a 5.25 bay.  They do make a part for my server case that does multiple drives like that but they cost as much as the case.  Also I wonder who decided that limiting cable length to what is it like 1 meter was a good idea?  I'm at the limit of my LVD SCSI cable runs and that's like 6 meters.   

[Hippo]

sata drives are pretty much idiot proof

yeah, theres either something funky with the bios/mobo, or you havent got everything plugged in... its pretty much plug and play with the exception that you have to do a little physical work

[Tyrian]

I'd say the disk isn't partitioned.  Another way to partition the disk is to set your machine to boot from CD and throw in your OS disk.  They have a basic partitioning and formatting utility on there.  Only word of warning is to make sure you don't wipe out your existing partitions.

[Nuke]

just use disk manager
or some linux livecds have utils that can setup ntfs partitions.
if youre really desprate, use fdisk 

[Fury]

Maybe Al Tarket should give us a status update on this, as suggestions are starting to repeat themselves and discussion steered off course to servers.