20 Most Recent Western Digital Caviar 500GB Internal SATA Hard Drive Questions & Answers

You need to update the BIOS in your computer. An easier way on older computers is to buy an empty external drive case and install the drive in it, and use a USB port to connect it Then it will show the full capacity

you may need to initialize it.Right click my computer select manage when it opens on the left side look for disk management click on it.It will open on the right.IFyou see the external drive right click it choose initialize. Once this is done you should see it under my conputer.
GOOD LUCK

Hello,You probably don't need to replace the hard drive. It may very well have enough space to install Windows 7. You can likely install Windows 7 on the old PC, but depending on how much ram the machine has it may not be such a great experience in the end.......seriously. If you can get 1 gig or more of ram in it, then it may be feasable to install win7, but don't expect much in the way of performance. I don't mean to sound negative though....if you're so inclined, then go for it! It is probably do-able.Joe

if your computers motherboard is older than 5-6 yrs you might not be able to load windows 7
and you will need a minimum of 2GB of RAM

During the boot process you will see on the screen to press a certain key to enter setup Press and hold that key during the boot up process to enter BIOS the scroll down to advanced bios features press enter change your first boot device to cd,press escape then press f10 to save to cmos to restart (note after you have loaded the operating system you should go back and change the first boot device to your hard drive) The BIOS is AMI. Under ADVANCED SETUP: The options listed for 1st,2nd ,3rd Boot device include:IDE-0 means Pri master ?IDE-1 means Pri slave ?IDE-2 means Sec master ?IDE-3 means Sec slave ?hope this helps you

try uninstalling a few unnecessary programs then click start run type cmd then type chkdsk/r/f which will scan for and attempt to fix any bad sectors and automatically fix any corrupt files on your hard drive this will schedule on a restart then defragment your hard drive or click start control panel administrive tools,computer management ,disk management right click on your drive select properties click tools you should see click check now click start tick in both boxes automatically fix files and scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors place then a tick in both boxes then select check now,start should schedule this task when restart do not do anything while the chkdsk utility is in progress any input may damage your computer then you should test or replace all leads make sure they are securely seated and are not bad/faulty that are attached to your (((motherboard to your hard drive))) then click start all programs accessories system tools defragment your hard drive you might have to install more RAM random access memory to check how much ram you have to check the details on your computer click start all programs accessories system tools system imformation you will see all of your computers imformation from there another way of doing this click start right click on my computer select properties you will see all imformation about your computer including installed ram scroll to the bottom toolbar (bottom of screen) right click you can select task manager applications also processes you will see whats running on your computer if you see something running that you don

Please check that the power connection - to the outlet and to the device itself is as it should be. Mostly, when these things occur, it's related to a physical problem - either with the power source (cable/outlet) or a physical problem with the drive itself.

Try some of these things and hopefully one will fix it.

http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/hdd/spaceMissingSpace-c.html

http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Express-ATA133-Controller-Chipset/dp/B000ZD3YA0%3FSubscriptionId%3D16330PR1NAHTNCZP5602%26tag%3Dpriwat-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB000ZD3YA0 this will do it for you

If you've got the xp installation disk, create a partition on that drive and then use the windows 7 disk.

The SATA Drives do not need jumpers to set primary and secondary drive positions. Each sata drive gets it's own connection to the motherboard. Check you motherboard diagram, and make sure the 320GB drive is plugged into the 1st sata controler, and that the 500GB drive is connected to the 2nd.

U are actually facing the same problem as "jackwilkinso". As my previous post: Windows XP does not come out to support SATA hard drive, because inside do not inclued the SATA driver, that why u cannot see the harddisk during the setup. What u can do is try to install the SATA supported OS like Windows Vista or Windows 7, or maybe can "forcely" put in the SATA driver in ur Windows XP setup CD.

YBC (/\)

It's complicated to explain, but basically, you never get the full amount of space on your hard drive. For instance, a 320gb drive will always provide you with aprox. 298gb of space. However, your 137 vs 250 is a bit extreme. Is this a new hard drive? Have you made sure you have properly formatted and partitioned the drive? If this is a used drive, the previous owner may have it partitioned to use only part if the drive, so in this case I would try and format it.

Hard drive can make a nice paper weight. It's toast.

No diagrams or parts. WD may be able to repair it for you.

In some cases an IDE connector is added to RAID Hard Drives or Industrial grade desktop computer drivers.. it's a backwards compatibility measure in case of failure. Other driver may also include an IDE power source too.. Those IDE connections are also known as (PATA) or Parallel.

WARNING Before you start troubleshooting remember that you are dealing with electricity that can KILL. http://www.kitchentablecomputers.com/static.php - rules Only work inside the computer case when the power has been switched off and disconnected. Never open the power source. Some of the below steps recommend removing physical parts within the computer. While in the computer it is highly recommend that you be aware of ESD and its potential hazards Test all leads that attach to your hard drive power and data cables IDE ,SATA the leads from your MOTHERBOARD TO YOUR HARD DRIVE make sure they have a secure dust free connections and are not faulty or just replace them they could be faulty Make sure all leads that are attached to your dvd \ cd floppy drives have secure connections and are not faulty or just replace them they could be faulty. Computers need power and data to travel through every working device to continue its cycle and have an end so any faulty leads will end up with a computer error. Even something as small as a faulty electrical or fan lead can cause you problems Motherboard and a Hard Drive any leads between them will fail before your motherboard or your hard drive if its a flat ribbon 40 pin type IDE replace it this will be the first to fail. Check all electrical power input and extensions make sure they are securely seated even the cd/dvd floppy drives need to have current go through make sure these drives are working Could be a problem with the Hard Drive or the Hard drives PCB http://www.onepcbsolution.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du0Qd_3wFWM

..as i know when HDD start beeping ( internal or portable ) that indicate problem with the Hard Drive (HDD)..so nothing you can do it by your self ....if the HDD is under warranty from factory you may take it to the store that you buy or nearest Western Digital distributor to claim the warranty...but if it doesn't in warranty..that's mean a problem why?because if HDD start beeping like you have, the possibility to make it work again is almost impossible that mean you maybe lost the data that you save in this HDD..

The hardware that you are trying to access is damaged or failing.

The device drivers for the hardware are faulty or incompatible.

There is a connection problem such as a bad cable

for internal hard drives

Test all power and data leads that attach to your hard drive IDE,SATA

the leads from your MOTHERBOARD TO THE HARD DRIVE make sure they have a

secure dust free connections and are not faulty or just replace them they could be faulty if its a flat 40pin ide

this will be the first to fail

make sure all leads that are attached to your drives dvd\cd 3 1/2 inch floppy have secure connections and are not faulty

or just replace them they could be faulty a computer needs power and data to travel through every working device and continue its cycle and have an end so any faulty leads will end up with a computer error hope this helps

You have to format a hard drive with a third party disk unless its a usb data drive Restart your computer During the boot process you will see on the screen to press a certain key to enter setup Press and hold that key during the boot up process to enter BIOS then using the arrow keys navigate to advanced bios features press enter change your first boot device to cd press escape then press f10 to save to cmos restart note this will erase you operating system you will have to have an operating system disk to load it onto you hard drive or create a partition to load another operating system note after you have loaded the operating system you should go back and change the first boot device to failsafe or optimised defaults after windows has loaded your computer will automatically restart it might restart 2 times one to finish the installation the next will be because the operating system is loaded and will boot from your cd hope this helps