installed SATA HDD not visible on Acer Nitro 5 AN517-41 laptop

Badger123

Hi, I have a brand new Nitro 5 AN517-41 which came with WINDOWS 11 and the SATA cable and installation screws.
I followed the installation tutorials and installed a new 1Tb WD internal HDD (bought directly from the manufacturer WD Blue SATA 2.5" Laptop Hard Drive HDD | Western Digital ) 

The new HDD is not found in "this PC" , nor in "disk management" nor in the bios. Nowhere to be seen.

I rechecked the connections and installation and all seems ok.

Please help.

Thanks

{Thread was edited to add model name to the title}

padgett

 What is the model number. BTW rotary dives take more power than an SSD to spin up. Dies it appear in the BIOS or DiskPart ?

StevenGen

Badger123 said:

Hi, I have a brand new Nitro 5 AN517-41 which came with WINDOWS 11 and the SATA cable and installation screws.
I followed the installation tutorials and installed a new 1Tb WD internal HDD (bought directly from the manufacturer WD Blue SATA 2.5" Laptop Hard Drive HDD | Western Digital ) 

The new HDD is not found in "this PC" , nor in "disk management" nor in the bios. Nowhere to be seen.

I rechecked the connections and installation and all seems ok.

Please help.

Thanks

{Thread was edited to add model name to the title}

Badger123 you haven't connected the 1Tb WD internal HDD properly as that happened to me also with a brand new AN5151-56, the SATA cable is a very delicate connection and needs to be connected 100% and spot on into the motherboard plug otherwise it will not connect and/or show up, get a magnifier and make sure that the flat cable connects perfectly and secures to the mobo plug correctly otherwise it will not show up, it took me 3 times to be able to connect this dreaded thing before it connected and my Seagate BarraCuda 2TB slave was discovered in BIOS and Disk Manager, then you can format it and use it, so try that as there is nothing wrong with your 1Tb WD internal HDD. 

ttttt

@Badger123

I'll suggest connect again as @StevenGen said. That ribbon cable has to be fully inserted before closing the clip. It took me two times to make proper connection when adding the 2.5" SATA3 SSD. Visually check the ribbon cable for any damage too, such as any discontinuity.

One more thing! When I added a WD SATA SSD to my A515-46-R14K, I had to enter a supervisor password to make it work.
Have you used a supervisor password in BIOS? If not, this may be the reason.

One good thing to check if the WD SSD is good is to use an USB external caddy/enclosure to test that out. Even though the WD SATA3 SSD has good reputations, but it is still possible that you got a bad one.

Badger123

Thank you all for your replies.

I have reinserted the ribbon into the clip socket many times I opened the clip and then I fully inserted and squarely seated the ribbon and then I closed the clip. Maybe the ribbon is damaged as the hdd configuration wants the ribbon to be bent the other way than it was factory bent. I did not put any extra crease on the ribbon nor tried to unbend it, the ribbon bending in the opposite direction is as gentle as it can be....
I am waiting for a spare ribbon to arrive from china which might be a long wait (I wish Acer sent me a replacement), but will test the drive in a usb caddy first which should arrive this week.
The hdd does not appear on disk manager nor bios nor easus app. But the settings of HDDs in bios are enabled.
I dont know how to make use of the diskpart, I dont know what to type in there and what to do with. Please advise.
I did the bios f9 reset to defaults but the internal hdd is still not detected.

ttttt said:

@Badger123

I'll suggest connect again as @StevenGen said. That ribbon cable has to be fully inserted before closing the clip. It took me two times to make proper connection when adding the 2.5" SATA3 SSD. Visually check the ribbon cable for any damage too, such as any discontinuity.

One more thing! When I added a WD SATA SSD to my A515-46-R14K, I had to enter a supervisor password to make it work.
Have you used a supervisor password in BIOS? If not, this may be the reason.

One good thing to check if the WD SSD is good is to use an USB external caddy/enclosure to test that out. Even though the WD SATA3 SSD has good reputations, but it is still possible that you got a bad one.

I have not used a supervisor password in bios. I'd like to know. Please advise.

thank you all again.

ttttt

@Badger123

After pressing the power on button while still in black screen, keep tapping the F2 key until you see the BIOS menu.
Scroll to the Security tab and hit enter. 
The Set Supervisor Password option is under this tab.

Badger123

ttttt said:

@Badger123

After pressing the power on button while still in black screen, keep tapping the F2 key until you see the BIOS menu.
Scroll to the Security tab and hit enter. 
The Set Supervisor Password option is under this tab.

Thanks, I did enable and set the supervisor password in the security tab of bios. Still no sight of the internal sata hdd.
There is also an option in the security tab to enable and set password for the hdd, should i do that as well?
but when I check the bios's first tab for hdds , it says none.

StevenGen

Badger123 said:

ttttt said:

@Badger123

After pressing the power on button while still in black screen, keep tapping the F2 key until you see the BIOS menu.
Scroll to the Security tab and hit enter. 
The Set Supervisor Password option is under this tab.

Thanks, I did enable and set the supervisor password in the security tab of bios. Still no sight of the internal sata hdd.
There is also an option in the security tab to enable and set password for the hdd, should i do that as well?
but when I check the bios's first tab for hdds , it says none.

Badger123 have a look at the end your HDD/SATA cable that plugs into the 12 pin mobo plug with your phones camera or take a caption and see if the cables 12 connecting threads are damaged? As and if that is the case then your whole cable/adaptor needs to be replaced with a new HDD/SATA cable/plug from Acer as you cant repair these things and/or make them work no matter what you do. Yes this connection process is very delicate and in my opinion a very poor way of connecting a SATA drive and should not be made so difficult but, price costing is the way things are today so be very careful when you get the new cable/plug. Good luck.

Below is the Mobo 12 pin SATA/HDD Plug for the HDD which the cable has to be placed gently and securely into this plug and the top clip then clipped on top, do not force the cable into this pug, use the blue cables inspersion attachment and do it gently,  as and if not, it will damage the 12 end threads of the cable and render it useless.

This is what can happen if you damage the end of the cable and it can't be repaired 



Mobo 12 pin SATA HDD/Plug 

Badger123

Hi, thanks.

model number of what ? 
The bios first tab says no hdds. I can call up the Diskpart to appear on my screen, but I dont know how to use it to get the info about my disks from it. Please advise. thanks

ttttt

@Badger123

Have you set the password for HDD? I'll try set it. My laptop's BIOS is different from yours. Maybe you need to set HDD password too.

The ribbon cable that shipped with the laptop should be the right one, and the bend direction should be correct.

You said " I can call up the Diskpart to appear on my screen", but does it appear under Disk Management? Is so, you can format it now.

Badger123

StevenGen said:

Badger123 said:

ttttt said:

@Badger123

After pressing the power on button while still in black screen, keep tapping the F2 key until you see the BIOS menu.
Scroll to the Security tab and hit enter. 
The Set Supervisor Password option is under this tab.

Thanks, I did enable and set the supervisor password in the security tab of bios. Still no sight of the internal sata hdd.
There is also an option in the security tab to enable and set password for the hdd, should i do that as well?
but when I check the bios's first tab for hdds , it says none.

Badger123 have a look at the end your HDD/SATA cable that plugs into the 12 pin mobo plug with your phones camera or take a caption and see if the cables 12 connecting threads are damaged? As and if that is the case then your whole cable/adaptor needs to be replaced with a new HDD/SATA cable/plug from Acer as you cant repair these things and/or make them work no matter what you do. Yes this connection process is very delicate and in my opinion a very poor way of connecting a SATA drive and should not be made so difficult but, price costing is the way things are today so be very careful when you get the new cable/plug. Good luck.

Below is the Mobo 12 pin SATA/HDD Plug for the HDD which the cable has to be placed gently and securely into this plug and the top clip then clipped on top, do not force the cable into this pug, use the blue cables inspersion attachment and do it gently,  as and if not, it will damage the 12 end threads of the cable and render it useless.

This is what can happen if you damage the end of the cable and it can't be repaired 



Mobo 12 pin SATA HDD/Plug 

Hello, thank you StevenGen . I photo magnified the cable's 12 pin mobo plug and all looks pristine. I did not take photo of the socket when I had the laptop opened.
I tested the drive in a caddy and the drive works, I initialised it and formated the the whole partition with default settings and tested a few transfer files and the hdd is ok. I have not tried to put the now initialised and formated hdd back in the laptop. It may be recognised, or not, but I'll wait till I have the spare mobo cable. so then I can find out if the problem is with the cable or the socket. The socket's clip does not seem to close down firm with the cable, kind of springy when the cable was plugged in there. 
Just to be clear, which way is the plug supposed to be plugged in the clip socket ? 
A ) the mobo 12 pin contacts facing the motherboard ?
B ) the mobo 12 pin contacts facing my face ?
Please advise.
Thank you.
I would like to thank everyone who is chipping in with their replies. My apologies for not replying to all, for some reason I cannot post, I get a notification that my comments would be posted once approved.  
I am not sure if this comment will be delayed till it is approved as well.

Badger123

I am trying to answer all of your replies but most of my postings and answers get warning with approval pending. This sucks, because it is slowing our communication down and this is is very very frustrating.

Badger123

StevenGen
Thank you, I photo magnified the ribbon plug and the contacts look pristine.
The hdd was tested in a caddy and works. it has been initiated and formatted with default settings. I have not put back in the laptop to see if it is going to be recognised. I will wait till the spare ribbon cable arrive. The clip socket did not close firm with the cable, it was kind of springy.
Just to be clear about the ribbon contacts when placing the ribbon cable into the clip socket:
A ) do the ribbon contacts face the motherboard ?
B ) do the ribbon contacts face my face ?
Please advise.
Thank you.

Badger123

so I put the now initiated and formated hdd back in the laptop. and it is still not visible. so if the new ribbon cable does not fix it, the laptop will have to be sent for repairs

Badger123

AlexPeter said:

 What is the model number. BTW rotary dives take more power than an SSD to spin up. Dies it appear in the BIOS or DiskPart ?

Hi, thanks.
model number of what ? 
The bios first tab says no hdds. I can call up the Diskpart to appear on my screen, but I dont know how to use it to get the info about my disks from it. Please advise. thanks

Badger123

Hi there, just an update. 15/03/22 I was in the process of booking a repair and suddenly the sata hdd appeared on my system. And it is still recognised and working today. Thank you all for your support, cheers.

ttttt

@Badger123

Thank you for reporting back.

Still don't know why it did not work before. What you have done recently?

osshabib

Hello

a new ACER Nitro 5 comes with unformatted HDD (typically 1000 GB) and SDD carrying windows system.

The unformatted HDD can't see in my PC section.

To enable seeing and using the unformatted HDD, open command prompt (in administration account), then use the commend diskmgmt.msc

this commend will reveals all the SSD and HDD, and provide access to format them.

Do not format SDD, as it is carrying windows system. only format the unformatted HDD in order to be visible and usable.