Windows Knowledge Base

[Hardware DYI] Why my new WD SATA2 500G is not recongized by windows?

WestDigital Second Generation Serial ATA hard drives use autospeed negotiation. This enables Second Generation Serial ATA hard drives to automatically detect the motherboard data transfer rate, making it backward compatible with First Generation Serial ATA data transfer rates. However, because this technology is so new, some older First Generation Serial ATA controllers are unable to support autospeed negotiation and cannot recognize the drive. This “drive not detected” condition occurs when a chipset is incapable of correctly negotiating the data transfer speed with a Second Generation Serial ATA hard drive. below listed chipset thta will have problem to recognize Sata2 harddisk.

• VT8237
• VT8237R
• VT6420
• VT6421L
  
  
• SIS760
• SIS964

The solution is:

1. to Get new PCI or PCI-E SATA2 Controller Card

2. Lock the drive at 150MB/s by install a jumper on the pins OPT1 show in the picture below: