Think your smart - then try fix this!!

NEW (REPLACEMENT) HARD DRIVE NOT DETECTED IN BIOS OR VISTA INSTALLATION!!!

i have a dell inspiron 6400
Intel® Pentium® dual-core T2080(1MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB)
1gb ram
toshiba 120GB 5400 8MB SATA HDD

my hard drive just failed. so i bought a new WD 160GB 7200 16MB SATA

I have put it in the laptop, no problems. fits fine.

booted my computer with the Vista Installation cd i got with my dell. I click the "install now" button, choose custom instalation (the only choice available), agree to the terms and then it gets to the stage to chose where to install vista. my hard drive does not show up. nothing is there. There is a option to "Load Drievrs" but my WD Hard Drive did not come with a cd, and i didnt think i needed to install any drivers for a hard drive.

I went into BIOS (well Dell's very limited attempt at a BIOS) and under Device Management there is no hard drive detected.

What is happening?? please help!!

 

Try and find an auto-detect option in BIOS and see if the hard drive comes up.
If it doesn't show up i would guess a faulty connection, faulty SATA controller or faulty hard drive. try the hard drive in another laptop if possible, if it shows up on the other then assume its the sata controller or connection.

 

thanks for the advice. dell BIOS is so crap. you can barely modify anything. so there is no auto detect area for the SATA. All i have is just the device management section which tells you what hard drive you have but for me it just says "none".

What is the SATA connector? is that the connection where i plugged the hard drive into?

thanks again for your help!

 

also - im very timid about hard drives now.

to test it in my room mates laptop, is it just a simple case of taking her hard drive out, putting my new one in and see if BIOS finds it? i just dont want to do anything harmful to her laptop thats all!

thanks

 

Should be fine to check, just make sure not to touch anywhere but the sides, or if it has a rubber protective case handle it by that.

 

you WILL need a Floppy disk with drivers..

 

Floppy disk with drivers for a SATA Hard drive on a laptop? A driver won't make the hardware visible to BIOS.

 

You will only need a floppy disk to get the drive to work in Windows, if the SATA operates in RAID mode. But if it's not visible in the BIOS, I suspect that the cables (SATA and power) aren't connected to the hard drive properly.