# Solved: Motherboard won't recognize hard drive, SATA port issues?



## DisplayError (Dec 26, 2008)

I have an ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX motherboard which has SATA 2 and SATA 3 ports. I've tried fiddling around with BIOS options and my hard drive is recognized by the motherboard as seen in this picture:









The computer will boot to the screen where I can select to boot into safe mode or normal boot. Regardless of which option I select, the computer will restart right after, as seen in this video: 




I've tried booting the hard drive with another board and everything works fine (hard drive isn't the problem). I've also tried booting the entire system using another PSU and I get the same result as in the video linked above. I've come to the conclusion that it's the motherboard that's causing the problem and that I should RMA it. What is the community's opinion?


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## Triple6 (Dec 26, 2002)

So is this hard drive that you are attempting to boot originally from another computer? If so then that's why it doesn't boot properly, Windows will only boot if the hard drive controller is the same or similar as the original system it was installed on, and only if it's in the same mode as before; ie. Legacy/IDE, ACHI/SATA, or RAID mode. Even switching from the SATA 2 to SATA 3 controller can result in such a boot loop. A repair install or best yet a complete format and install of Windows will fix that. 

It appears the motherboard is detecting the hard drive looking at your video just fine so not sure why you initially state it is recognising it. 

You're also getting an error on a secondary device, is that the CD\DVD drive? What model is it and how is it connected? And if SATA to which controller, the SATA 2 or SATA 3 controller?


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## DisplayError (Dec 26, 2008)

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, the hard drive is from another computer. I'm attempting to reinstall Windows right now, though my IDE DVD drive isn't working. I'm trying to install Windows 7 through a USB to see if that works. 
I don't know why the IDE drive isn't working though--it was working on my old motherboard. I've searched around and it seems that I have to set the mode of the IDE drive from slave to master (or something like that). I'm not quite sure what that means and whether that affects my drive, as I'm only using one IDE device.


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

Win7 installs very well from a bootable usb. In fact that is almost always how I install win7 now. MS even has a tool for making the boot usb from an iso file. Here is a link to the tool.
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool


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## DisplayError (Dec 26, 2008)

USB installation worked perfectly. I guess there was a problem with my IDE cable and/or drive. I switched the IDE DVD drive from slave to master but my motherboard still couldn't recognize it.
Problem solved. Thanks for the responses, Triple6 and crjdriver.


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