Hard Drive (not detected ~ new build)

[Overkill-GB]

Hello,

I recently bought my new rig and put it all together however when switching it on finally I got this terrible beeping from my Maximus II Formula which went after a while and then let me go into BIOS.

I noted that when loading up it said *Hard Disk not detected* and when in BIOS and Vista Installation it was still not detected.

So I took the side panel of once again and checked the hard drive, after removing the bay from the case, and looking closely at my Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 32mb Cache that I got from Overclockers UK, I noticed that the plastic casing around the pins at the rear of the HD has snapped off and was left lodged in the SATA cable so the pins just remained on the HD itself.

I tryed another SATA cable and it was still not detected, in your personal views do you think this is probably the cause of the HD not being detected or could it be something more severe such as dead HD factory fault?

I have sent it back to be checked over and a new one should come on Wednesday or Thursday,

Thankyou.

Robert.

[TwoRails]

How did the plastic break? Sounds like physical damage which could have damaged the drive itself. (hopefully the physical damage doesn't kick back on the replacement...) However, if there was no traumatic damage to the drive, and just minor plastic damage, it's possible for the drive to still work. Since you have another drive coming, you will find out for sure later in the week.

Let us know.

[Overkill-GB]

Well I have a small confession on why the plastic would of broken, it is because the hard drive was placed in reverse as it can help with cable management and it would seem that would be the cause.

I would'nt of put it in reverse personally, but since I had never built a pc before and I was learning from a friend its hard to say s-t-o-p don't do that when your learning first hand.

However dispite this happening for anyone who is wondering about buying from Overclockers UK I would highly reccomend the company even though they did miss my order of Artic 5 Thermal Compound the support team on the phone at local rate were at UK call centres, offered me a full refund on the Saturday delivery and Thermal Compound, as I could'nt get the machine running on the Saturday and offered me a replacement on the hard drive once the broken one was recieved at there end and then they would refund the postage chargers to reach them.

I could'nt believe the customer support and I would definantly buy from them again without a secound thought.

If the worse does happen and they do send me it back, how would you propose to get it to fuction supposing the internals of the Hard Disk were still in fully fuctioning condition.

Robert.

I will keep you posted.

Thanks.

[TwoRails]

Glad you had a good experience with Overclockers UK. That's always a good thing. As far as guess to what else could be wrong, I think it would be best to wait to see if the new one fixes things and go from there.

[Overkill-GB]

Just recieved the hard drive back (the old one) they stated this with it.

WARRANTY VOID: Customer Induced Damage - surrounding area is perfectly intact. Connector has been sheared off - could not of been damaged by courier or inferiour packaging.

I have no idea what to do now, my last hope is trying it once more.

Any ideas?

Robert.

[Overkill-GB]

Seagate itself do a manufacture warranty at the depo in derby UK, so I think I might try that, they have just given my an RMA number but there is no space for a description to be left on why I am sending it back there policy seems to be send to them > and replace.

Hopefully it will work out that way, I will try it a few more times as I think the pins need to be straightened a little, then I will send it off.

Robert.

[glc]

Good luck. Seagate will probably say the same thing, that's induced physical damage, not a manufacturing defect. I know exactly what's broken and how you did it (been there done that) and it's not repairable or usable.

[Overkill-GB]

So if they do send it back, my only real option is to buy a new one right?

[glc]

Yep.

[Overkill-GB]

Sounds like a positive outlook, what happened in your situation glc?

[glc]

When you flex the SATA connector, it breaks the plastic key off. Without the key, the cable will not stay on the drive or make proper contact. This is a weakness of the SATA system, you do have to be careful.

[Overkill-GB]

Hmm, the 12 series of Seagate HD's should definantly improve on this fault,

I spoke to Seagate on the phone today, she said that as long as there is no major damage such as dents in the Hard Drive and because of the small nature of the problem after explaining to her, she was pretty sure that Seagate would be able to send me out a new or refurbished hard drive,

I am keeping optimistic however keeping an open mind as I am not crossing the fact that they might just send it back with customer induced damage as you said; but realistic they should improve the quality of the connection between the serial ATA cable and the hard drive connector.

Robert.

[glc]

Good luck. It sounds like they seem to want to accomodate you. Learn from your mistake and be careful!

[Overkill-GB]

Hey again,

I recieved the new hard drive yesterday and my system is succesfully running.

I am very impressed with Seagate's service and I was initially with Overclockers UK but as they were'nt able to provide me with a new one from the same situation it really does clinch who is the better company.

The hard drive is detected by BIOS and Vista and everything is installed fine, however just a minor query does'nt matter at all purely out of interest is that when the machine is switched on and just goes past the initial BIOS notification (american megatrends logo)

There is a little hyphen that flashes

-

and then say's

Hard disk not detected!

~ but it is

Just wondered if you guys knew?

Thankyou

Robert.