harddrive appears in bios but wont load windows

[Gonzo]

ok i just installed my 2 waterblocks and after i put them in i ran my leak tests then went to start windows and it failed everytime. when it brings up the repair window it doesnt even see a partition with an os installed so i cant even choose to repair it or restore it. i also decided to just reinstall windows but when i get to the prompt to choose a drive my harddrive doesnt even show up. it appears in my bios but doesnt seem to exist anywhere else. its done this once before to me and magically started working again for no reason. any help would be appreciated. in the repair menu it also asks me to install drivers so i can see hidden devices but the western digital drive i have has no drivers on WD's website

[Grnfinger]

do you have a spare pc you can connect the drive to
only time i had this happen was on a ssd firmware update solved the problem

[Gonzo]

no spare pc atm, using a laptop for this. im kinda wondering if my ssd died that is used to accelerate that drive. maybe ill have to pull it out to see. still seems odd to me that it doesnt even show up when i try a new install though

edit: i unsychronized the ssd from the harddrive and it seems to be working again. its running a restore right now. not sure if ill be able to reaccelerate the drive but fuck it if i cant it didnt speed much up anyway with its measly 20gigs

edit 2: no lcuk with the restores but i can atleast access the drive now so it looks like im going to have reinstall windows then download my whole steam library again. comcast is gonna hate me over 750gigs of files for the games i actually play

[0xygenthief]

Did you replace the motherboard by chance?

Some drives have compatibility issues with certain chipsets that prevent them from being bootable drives. Several of the larger drives have issues like this with motherboards that do not have the new bios standard.

[Drewsillac]

My machine crashed and I reformatted it yesterday.
I went ahead and updated my firmware, then secure erased it.
I loaded windows on it just fine, and the BIOS even detected it, but it says NO BOOT DRIVE.

So, I reinstalled Windows without the secure erase and it worked.

[Gonzo]

nah i actually didnt change a thing. just unplugged my vid cards and sound card. i think it has something to do with being unplugged for prolonged periods cause its done this once before after i had it unplugged a few hours but that time startup repair fixed the problem. i ended up wiping the drive and starting over last night. temps are fucken awesome on my 2 gtx 570's now. they used to idle around 45-47c, now under full load it maxes out at 37c! used to hit 80c+ under full load in under 2 mins. plus my computer doesnt sound like a shop vac when im playing demanding games

[KaptCrunch]

boot order or loose hdd connections and fiemware

[Gonzo]

boot order or loose hdd connections and fiemware

only thing it could be is firmware, i checked all connections and even replaced the cables and it still would only show up in the bios. it had something to do with my ssd that was cacheing that drive. once i killed the acceleration i could acces the drive again but windows was so screwed up it couldnt repair the problem or restore(i hate restore anyway always causes more problems later) so today ive been reinstalling everything and downloading files constantly. sucks my crunching is suffering, but now i can run gpu grid without worrying about my cards catching on fire. damn things hit 97c in under 2 mins with gpugrid going when air cooled

edit 2:PROBLEM SOLVED-- ok i figured out what the problem was. when u install an ssd as a cache device on z68 mobos u have an option to choose a maximized setting or a safer setting that writes data to the drive constantly so u dont lose what its cacheing. when i installed it i went for maximum cause it was a new build that i wasnt planning on fucking with, but then the waterbug bit me. so if u are planning on removing hardware often or occasionaly i would suggest not choosing maximized mode