Newer Lenovo won't see original Hard Drive?

I pulled my hard drive and when I reinstalled it, My Lenovo won't even see it now? Been into the bios and it reads the dvd burner on one of 4 SATA ports, but not the Hard Drive in any of the other ports. At Boot-Up it says No operating system... Any help is appreciated! Thanx in advance, Syx...

EDIT to ADD: I have worked on PC's for Years. So know the basics well... Have installed new OS's to New HD's, done Reformatting of old ones, Swapped HD's etc...

a reply to: SyxPak

Don't want to sound like i'm treating you like an idiot but one day my computer would boot up no further than the makers splash screen so after ripping open the computer and hunting around for about 10 minutes I noticed that one SATA plug in the back of the disc had almost fallen out.

So many things it could be. I'd try disconnecting everything and only having the hdd connected - make sure the power is firmly connected and the sata cable is also securely connected to the motherboard. I've had mine appear to be connected but it has been slightly out, and not detected.

if it detects it with no other drives connected, then try to reconnect them, and test again.

It's strange if it doesnt detect at all. Do you hear it even spinning up? Is it a SSD drive (in which case you wont hear it..) ?

first thing though, eliminate every other possibility.. try it lone.. unless you've already done that.. ?? weird.

a reply to: sn0rch

Will try your suggestions. Yes it is odd. I have moved hd from puter to puter before, no probs. Have pulled a HD and reinstalled, no probs several times in the past... Im using a dinosaur now for this and its a pain in the ass...
Am going to try startup, with only the hd soon.... Thanx Man!

Edit: I t doesnt even show it as a new empty HD. Which I'd expect at least! Like when installing a brand new empty HD that needs an Operating System, Ya know?...

originally posted by: SyxPak
a reply to: sn0rch

Will try your suggestions. Yes it is odd. I have moved hd from puter to puter before, no probs. Have pulled a HD and reinstalled, no probs several times in the past... Im using a dinosaur now for this and its a pain in the ass...
Am going to try startup, with only the hd soon.... Thanx Man!

Edit: I t doesnt even show it as a new empty HD. Which I'd expect at least! Like when installing a brand new empty HD that needs an Operating System, Ya know?...

Try connecting something up with the same sata cable your using for the Harddrive and see if that iten is seen.

a reply to: dreamfox1

I did try another known good hd and i got same results. Didnt even see it... The machine is barely 5 months old... So I dunno what's going on... Trippin Me out is all I know! LOL!!

1) What operating system.
2) Am I correct in the reading that you pulled the drive out and then reinstalled the same drive back?
3) Are you running more than one HD in the PC?

a reply to: Hefficide

Hi Heff. Windows 8. Yes it's the same Drive I pulled and is the only one. There is a dvd burner that the machine recognizes, but it won't see the original HD any more...

a reply to: SyxPak

Windows 8?

Here's the problem.

It's called SECURE BOOT or UEFI. It's this weird kind of limitation set up by Windows for windows 8.

If you've changed anything about your HDD it might not boot unless you change the option in your bios to LEGACY BOOT, or just Legacy.

Or, the opposite, it might have set itself to Legacy and needs to be put back to UEFI.

Then it should see the drive.

~Tenth

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Thanx!! Will give that a try!!!

a reply to: SyxPak

I just re-installed a machine with windows 8.1 to Win 7 yesterday, took me 5 hours to figure that one out ha.

~Tenth

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Man that sucks!
I seem to be getting no where.
Can you maybe list the important settings I need to take note of, and their settings each? I have tried what you suggested a few diff ways. Like Does it have to be on secure boot, or not? and all that... When secure is disabled, it gives fewer setting changes I am able to make... Also, quick boot ok? and everything else I need to know? Thanx in advance... IDE is not used for SATA hookup right? Am a little new to SATA, but seems self explanatory... This is a standard drive too, not Solid State...

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Yes, windows 8 is really not intuitive at all. I know this sounds weird but I preferred window 7's interface.

a reply to: SyxPak

Sorry you're having such issues.

Can you maybe list the important settings I need to take note of, and their settings each?

Here's what I would try first:

1.Get into your BIOS and check your boot options. Confirm if it's listed as Legacy or UEFI, just note it really. Check if you have a HD listed. Make sure it's set as the 1st option.

If it's not, you can usually use F5 and F6 to raise/lower it in the list, in any case, make it first. Put everything else that's in between, that even vaguely looks HD related, to the bottom of the list.

Save & Exit.

If it doesn't boot your windows, try this:

1.Get into your BIOS and change the boot config to LEGACY.

Save & Exit

2.Go back to your boot menu and look at the list of what's booting in what order. Confirm you see a HD there, if you do, mirror the steps above, make sure it's first in the list, put everything else at the bottom, with CD ROM and USB in between.

Save & Exit

That should then see the HD and boot from it. If it doesn't, I'd suggest trying to plug it into a External Drive Chassis and seeing if it's recognized by another machine, or just putting the whole drive into another Laptop or Desktop to see if it's seen.

Could be the drive itself that burnt.

IDE and SATA are two different standards that don't intermingle .

~Tenth

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Thanx will try as you listed... Will let ya know how I fare... Thanx again, Syx...

Have you tried putting that hard disk back into another machine? It could have possibly been damaged due to static discharge.

Tenth beat me to that point. I wandered away for a few.

a reply to: SyxPak
Try the simple things first . Load BIOS defaults , save and exit. Then go back into BIOS and check
By the way , which Lenovo series is it ? I would state something as far as with what company I retired with , but I read on ATS courtesy post that would be considered against posting manners

I had a similar problem with my PC case. It had a dual-boot switch for different hard disk drives. Couldn't understand why it was always picking one drive to boot. Forgot to clip back in one of the SATA power lines.

Other possibility is that you modified the MBR (Master Boot Record), so the BIOS can't find which partition to boot from.

If the above all fails there are still avenues to pursue.

The first I would try is to use a second computer to create a rescue USB stick or CD/DVD and then boot from that, with the HD installed. IF the rescue media can see the HD then you've narrowed things down. If the rescue CD doesn't then it's on the trouble shooting other things.

Two simple tricks you can try without any hassle:

1) Plug the HD into a different SATA port using a new cable. That troubleshoots two birds with one stone.
2) Unplug the machine, remove all of the RAM and the HD. Let it sit for a few minutes and then reinstall it all and attempt booting again. Oddly this often fixes the issue of a BIOS not being able to see an HD.

Thinking about it - you might also want to Google the recent issue that Lenovo was busted for shipping their systems with malware preinstalled.

Info on Superfish

Probably not your problem, but one you'll want to double check once your machine is working again.