No Ata Devices Found, HDDHackr won't detect my drive. Options

[brendanr0403]

I have bought a Western Digital (WD2500BEVT) 250GB SATA HDD to upgrade my Xbox 360 HDD. I purchased it from newegg ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...6-387-_-Product )

I have an sort of old eMachines T3393 that has this motherboard: http://www.fic.com.tw/product/motherboard/AMD/k8m-800m.aspx

I plug in the drive's power and data cables to the motherboard and disconnect all other drives. I boot into MS-DOS from my flash drive and when inside hddhackr, (HDDHackr v1.22 and hddss.bin files are in the flash drive) HDDHackr says "No ATA Devices Found"

Do I need a jumper on my HDD? Update BIOS? Get a SATA Controller? I don't know what to do on this one.

Thanks in advance.

This post has been edited by brendanr0403: Feb 4 2010, 11:50 PM

[ToBbErT]

Does the hdd show up in the bios?

[trees415]

I have a similar problem with the 1200BEVT, as my chipset is not able to communicate with the hard drive in order to allow for backward compatibility. If you have any of these chipsets, your computer will not be able to recognize the device: * VT8237, VT8237R, VT6420, VT6421L, SIS760, SIS964. If you have a pci-e port, I'd suggest a sata II controller card, as I do not know if 3rd party Sata I controller cards will work. This is where I am at, as I do not know what I should get in order to connect the hard drive to the machine. If all else fails, return the HDD and get a BEVS model. by the way, you know you will only be able to utilize 120 gb of your hard drive with your system. Good luck, hope this helps.

[brendanr0403]

Does the hdd show up in the bios?

No it does not.

[brendanr0403]

I have a similar problem with the 1200BEVT, as my chipset is not able to communicate with the hard drive in order to allow for backward compatibility. If you have any of these chipsets, your computer will not be able to recognize the device: * VT8237, VT8237R, VT6420, VT6421L, SIS760, SIS964. If you have a pci-e port, I'd suggest a sata II controller card, as I do not know if 3rd party Sata I controller cards will work. This is where I am at, as I do not know what I should get in order to connect the hard drive to the machine. If all else fails, return the HDD and get a BEVS model. by the way, you know you will only be able to utilize 120 gb of your hard drive with your system. Good luck, hope this helps.

Would this sata controller work? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16815102102

It is SATA II and PCI. It is not PCI-E because my motherboard does not have PCI-E.

[ToBbErT]

You dont need a new card. That pc has a via chipset so picking up the drive shouldnt be a problem. Have you tried using a other sata cable? Other sata port? Have you checked if the hdd is spinning when you connected it to your pc. Do other devices work on the sata ports (show up in bios)? First seek the problem then spend money.

This post has been edited by ToBbErT: Feb 5 2010, 03:16 PM

[brendanr0403]

You dont need a new card. That pc has a via chipset so picking up the drive shouldnt be a problem. Have you tried using a other sata cable? Other sata port? Have you checked if the hdd is spinning when you connected it to your pc. Do other devices work on the sata ports (show up in bios)? First seek the problem then spend money.

I do not have any other sata devices to try I have checked the other sata port and nothing changed. The hard drive is kind of hard to hear so I don't think so. I have used a different sata cable and nothing worked.

Wow im so outdated on hardware =P

[ToBbErT]

Theres no doubt that you should hear the hdd spin. And if you got ear problems then use your hands and touch the drive. If the drive doesnt show any sign of life then either your hdd doesnt get powered (bad power source?) or its completely dead. Seek a other power source and check if its getting powered (sata is not needed for this). Determine if its a bad power source or if your hdd is broke.

[kevo96]

by the way, you know you will only be able to utilize 120 gb of your hard drive with your system.

Why would you say that? not true. He can use the full 250

[craz3d]

Firstly, have you verified that your SATA controller is enabled. Since you have an old system, it might have been set to default as disabled, since SATA drives were still an emerging market.

Trees is right, though.
Read this, from Wikipedia

Given the importance of backward compatibility between SATA 1.5 Gbit/s controllers and SATA 3 Gbit/s devices, SATA 3 Gbit/s autonegotiation sequence is designed to fall back to SATA 1.5 Gbit/s speed when in communication with such devices. In practice, some older SATA controllers do not properly implement SATA speed negotiation. Affected systems require the user to set the SATA 3 Gbit/s peripherals to 1.5 Gbit/s mode, generally through the use of a jumper, however some drives lack this jumper. Chipsets known to have this fault include the VIA VT8237 and VT8237R southbridges, and the VIA VT6420, VT6421A and VT6421L standalone SATA controllers. SiS's 760 and 964 chipsets also initially exhibited this problem, though it can be rectified with an updated SATA controller ROM.


The chipset in bold is the one that is used for your motherboard's SATA ports. If the drive does not have a jumper for 1.5Gb/s operation mode, you need to buy a new SATA controller card.

If the drive does have this jumper, set it to 1.5Gb/s so that your computer might read it. If it does, prepare the drive for your XBOX, and test it connected to the 360. Once you know its working, set the jumper back to 3.0Gb/s and connect it back up, etc.

Be sure to use the proper hdss.bin for your 250GB drive.

This post has been edited by craz3d: Feb 7 2010, 07:03 AM

[brendanr0403]

Firstly, have you verified that your SATA controller is enabled. Since you have an old system, it might have been set to default as disabled, since SATA drives were still an emerging market.

Trees is right, though.
Read this, from Wikipedia

Given the importance of backward compatibility between SATA 1.5 Gbit/s controllers and SATA 3 Gbit/s devices, SATA 3 Gbit/s autonegotiation sequence is designed to fall back to SATA 1.5 Gbit/s speed when in communication with such devices. In practice, some older SATA controllers do not properly implement SATA speed negotiation. Affected systems require the user to set the SATA 3 Gbit/s peripherals to 1.5 Gbit/s mode, generally through the use of a jumper, however some drives lack this jumper. Chipsets known to have this fault include the VIA VT8237 and VT8237R southbridges, and the VIA VT6420, VT6421A and VT6421L standalone SATA controllers. SiS's 760 and 964 chipsets also initially exhibited this problem, though it can be rectified with an updated SATA controller ROM.
The chipset in bold is the one that is used for your motherboard's SATA ports. If the drive does not have a jumper for 1.5Gb/s operation mode, you need to buy a new SATA controller card.

If the drive does have this jumper, set it to 1.5Gb/s so that your computer might read it. If it does, prepare the drive for your XBOX, and test it connected to the 360. Once you know its working, set the jumper back to 3.0Gb/s and connect it back up, etc.

Be sure to use the proper hdss.bin for your 250GB drive.

My drive has jumpers, but i do not have any jumpers on hand. Any places to get them? And which pins do I put the jumper on for 1.5gb/s mode? There are a row of 4 pins. And I do have the right hddss.bin

[craz3d]

The jumper setting depends on the drive. Try google if the drive's label doesn't have the information on it... I don't know every single detail about every drive ever made.

If you have any old drives or computers you could steal one from there.

This post has been edited by craz3d: Feb 8 2010, 02:46 AM

[brendanr0403]

The jumper setting depends on the drive. Try google if the drive's label doesn't have the information on it... I don't know every single detail about every drive ever made.

If you have any old drives or computers you could steal one from there.

I took a jumper from my current IDE drive and used it in either 3 positions possible on the four pins and nothing changed inside HDDHackr. Also I can hear the drive spinning/running, so that removes the drive or power supply from question...but it is still not detected inside BIOS while the jumpers in either.

EDIT: If this helps any, the VIA Serial ATA Controller Driver is dated from 4/2/2009 (as stated in device manager) and I am running Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3

This post has been edited by brendanr0403: Feb 8 2010, 03:34 AM

[craz3d]

You never explicitly stated if you double checked that the SATA controller is enabled in the BIOS. Do that if you haven't already.

The Windows driver version unfortunately has no relevance to your issue with the drive not being detected. I'd try the drive on another computer (a friend with SATA, etc) so that you can be sure it isn't DOA.

[jekbu]

just type hddhackr on the prompt.

it will list all the controllers & drives it detects. just select the number from the list.