Vista is not recognizing hard drive

I just got a new hard drive, and I was planning on installing Vista on it. It's a Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA HDD. My computer only has IDE, so I'm using a converter/"vertical bridge" with the hard drive. Vista can't detect any hard drive during the install and asks for a driver.

I'm not sure if the drive is dead, or if there is a problem with Vista. The page on the Western Digital website says "perfect for Vista" and "Works with Windows Vista." I took it to another computer place after I couldn't get it to install, and they said all the connections are correct.

I heard it's not formatted because it's OEM. Fdisk says "no fixed drives" (or something like that) when I run it. I also tried Data Lifeguard Tools from the WD website, and that didn't detect the drive either.

So, is there a driver that I can download that will work? Or is my drive just dead on arrival?(how can I be sure?)

Hi omglol741,
Before any version of Windows will see a hard drive, the hard drive must be seen (and seen correctly) by the computer's BIOS (Basic Input Output System). Make sure the hard drive is seen correctly in the BIOS. If it is not might want to change the jumper on the hard drive. Try setting the drive to Master or take the jumper out all together. If this drive is a slave drive then change the jumper to slave.
Hope this helps.
Raj

k well I went into the BIOS > IDE configuration and it has my two dvd drives listed under secondary IDE master and slave, but Primary master and primary slave are Not Detected. I don't know how to do that jumper stuff, so maybe I'll ask the computer guy tomorrow or something.

This is down to your SATA connection in your motherboard. Enter your motherboard BIOS and search for your SATA connection. Change your SATA device type to IDE and they will be recognised as IDE devices. Reboot your system.

An alternative is if you have a driver disk for your SATA devices then windows will ask for it at installation time.

My motherboard doesn't have any SATA ports. That's why I'm using the converter. And this computer may be older than SATA ports.

The only thing I can find about Serial is under peripheral configuration

Serial Port A Auto
Serial Port B Disabled (I tried auto and it didn't do anything different)
mode [Normal, IrDA Sir-A, ASK_IR] (I tried normal)
Parellel Port Auto
mode [Output only, Bi-directional, EPP, ECP] (default is ECP)

so yeah, it's going in through an IDE port, so I don't see how it would even know if it's a SATA device. And where can I get drivers? Would I use drivers for SATA or IDE, because it's a SATA device using an IDE port.

Your add-on card should appear under the CMOS as SATA devices (probably under the lines of Integrated Peripherals). Serial and SATA are completely different - don't confuse them with each other and don't interfere with your serial port settings. There should be some sort of device listed under Integrated Devices as SATA add-on card, or something like that.

I looked through the entire BIOS menu and there is nothing about SATA or anything. I'm not using a pci expansion card. It's just a little thing that attaches to the back of the drive.

and how in the hell do I download this file? There is no download button. OMG that's annoying
Download Drivers - IDE Controllers - VIA - IDE, RAID, SATA Driver - driver23275.zip
Eh, I found it on another site. nvm

Hi omglol741,
The first picture shows you how to find the jumper and look for the words CS, Slave, Master.

The second picture shows how to remove the jumper. Then place the jumper in the right spot.

To start off I would set your PC like this:
Primary Master = Hard drive
Pimary Slave = DVD Drive
Secondary Master = DVD Drive
Secondary Slave = hard drive

Hope this helps.
Raj

Do SATA drives have that master/slave/cable select thing like IDE drives? I thought it was different or something.

And why isn't my drive covered? It's green like the motherboard. And it's surrounded by a cage thingy..

Hi omglol741,
To my knowledge sata drives do not have this physical feature. It's all controlled in the BIOS. I use 2 sata drives myself but in the BIOS is how I specify which is which. Also depends which channel you plug them into the motherboard too.
Wether your drive is "covered" should not matter. A EIDE hard drive is a EIDE hard drive.
Raj