HP z820 won't recognize any new drives

[3Dguy]

The system SSD in my z820 recently failed completely and I'm trying to install a 3.5 inch SATA drive in its place just to get it up and running again.

The machine boots fine from my Win 7 installation disk and install starts, but like others have posted no drives will show up. I can see the disk is recognized in the Mini OROM display during startup, but then it does not show up in the BIOS or of course the Windows installer. I've been all over the internet for solutions, including this site, and tried just about everything I can think of but I'm not even clear what the problem is which makes it hard to find a solution. I have not had this machine long and not been into the BIOS much so I'm not totally sure where the disk should show up anyway, but it doesn't appear in either of the Storage settings.

Tried changing some of the BIOS settings as has been suggested on some sites I've find and the following occurs:

In Storage Options with SATA mode set to RAID+AHCI the installer prompts me for a CD/DVD device driver. No idea what this is about -- there's only the DVD drive that the installer disk is successfully being read from.

With SATA mode set to IDE, I don't get the driver prompt and I'm taken straight to the installation -- but no drives show up. This is where I have attempted a lot of driver installs, including the driver pack for this machine from HP's site, by unzipping the exe's to a flash drive. Nothing works, and again I'm really unclear what I'm even doing here as I've never had to install drivers right at OS setup, and have done dozens. The installer does not give clear feedback about what's going on either. Simply says "No drives were found. Click load driver to provide a mass storage driver for installation". What does that mean?

Other suggestions have including using DISKPART to clean the disk. This didn't work either, as it couldn't find the disk.

Very frustrated at this point -- never hit such a brick wall with simply getting a drive to show up in BIOS on a system.

Can anyone at least explain what the issue probably is here? Have found several sites that suggest it's because the version of Windows I have predates the machine hence the need for driver installation, but this doesn't really make sense to me as it seems this would be a BIOS not a driver thing.

[DGroves]

don't know how many times i have posted this ( does anyone use this sites search feature?)

please reset the bios back to defaults RAID+AHCI is the correct default

the z820 under win 7 REQUIRES the intel RSTe (Enterprise RST) driver ver 4.5.10.1021to be installed during setup via the "F6" method to activate the 5 intel sata 3GBps "SCU" sata ports that are next to the two blue normal SATA 6GBps ports

the seven LSI SAS/SATA ports along the bottom of the motherboard also require a driver under win 7

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp69001-69500/sp69177.html

[3Dguy]

Surely the drive should still show in the BIOS, regardless of the OS I'm attempting to install? And I'm pretty sure the drivers you linked to are the same ones I've already downloaded from HP and attempted to install. This does not solve the problem because -- as I mentioned in the OP -- drives don't show up in the BIOS. SO this appears to be a BIOS problem.

[3Dguy]

Also why is it that this 64-bit machine only even sees the 32-bit versions of the drivers?

[DGroves]

the quality of help given is directly related to the information you provide, and since you have given very little you have received a basic reply. If you want more please provide the necessary information such as drive model number which controller and port you have connected to

your current question:

Also why is it that this 64-bit machine only even sees the 32-bit versions of the drivers?

it's not a understandable statement that i can understand, please try to rephrase it

if you are talking about the intel RSTe driver, then please read the listed information intel makes available on it

and you will read the section that states the "FULL" RST installation program  is both 32 and 64bit compatible and the installer will auto detect the correct format

however the "F6" method of driver install has separate 32 and 64bit versions and you must manually select the correct one that matches the OS you are planning to install

[SDH]

1.  First thing I'd do is NTFS format that 3.5" HDD using long-type option and MBR partitioning on another computer.  If it is in a "raw" state that is not where to start this process from in that workstation.  I personally do a full low level format of my drives before use using DBAN.... this wipes all the low level sectors and creates a "raw" drive from which I then do the NTFS format mentioned above.  There can be strange things deep in the drive that this clears out.  Many consider that a waste of time, and it does take significant time on a large drive, but how much time have you wasted already?  At least do the proper NTFS format.

2.  Did you set BIOS to factory defaults as advised?  There are BIOS settings that if not correctly set during a clean install will result in a bad install that is very difficult to ever fix.  The factory defaults ensure good basic clean install.  The technical manual tells you how to do that if you don't know.

3.  Do you have access to the HP Recovery DVD set for your workstation?  If you have that then that will result in a functioning HP factory install.  That then would need to be updated.

4.  Is that workstation already W10 activated?  If so I'd move on from W7 and do a clean W10 install using the MS USB installer method.  MS has got the W10 install drivers set pretty much perfected for that by now....