sata connections on mobo

[topcat]

I have recently joined this forum so hello for starters.
after a serious bowel surgery I thought I would resurrect a pc that I built some years ago as I cannot manage anything to physical anymore. I know it had a faulty mobo and vista OS.
I had a good case with 2 250 gb hdd and 2 asus  DRW  drives all of which have sata connections as does the novatech  47300 4 mob iwas advised by novatech that windows 10 would be good for a clean install said to be easy , just the job for me, after many goes at clearing drves and reinstalling I finally got it running properly, ish but my problem is that it does not recognise toe second hhd or the second drw drive, so I must have missed something out when doing the OS install, I bought mswindows 10  but someone said I could have got it free, but you always get one don't you, if anyone out there can see an obvious mistake or two I would love to hear about it, many thanks topcat.

[Geek-9pm]

Any 'free' Windows 10 depends on what you already hve. At one time you could get a Windows 10 update if yu had Windows 7. But that ship has sailed.   

Now if you are a person that requires technology that makes it easy for yu to use the computer, and you have Windows 7, the upgrade is still free. You will need to talk to MS support to see how yu might qualify.

Anyway, buying a copy of Windows 10 is a good idea. It mens you can install it again and might not have to call the MS support line to activate it. I am not very sure of how that works. But the idea is that MS wants yuo tohave one license for one computer. If you have two computers, two licenses.

About the SATA drives.
Are they all present in teh BIOS setup? 
Also, some makers will ship motherbords taht do not have all the connecttors on the motherboard, even tho the BIOS sahys the chip set has SAA interfaces.
Also,  Windowsd might not show drives it does not understand. You have to bring up the drive manager in the administrator tools to see if a drive has not been mounted. If it does not have a drive letter, it apparently was no mounted in the usual way.

This video might help:
https://www.isunshare.com/windows-10/7-ways-to-open-disk-management-in-windows-10.html
Look for this:

Does that help any?   

[topcat]

many thanks for the reply
geek-9pm(hope this is right) no the bios doesn't show all the drives only 1 hard drive and 1 disc drive

[Geek-9pm]

many thanks for the reply
geek-9pm(hope this is right) no the bios doesn't show all the drives only 1 hard drive and 1 disc drive

Wll.. if the drives are connected and you know then are running, then you might not have the extra ports enabled in the BIOS. WHat computer make and model?

[topcat]

you make a good point there are 4 connections (sata) and all the drives are connected to them but I don't think power is going  to the 2 , 1hdd and 1drw, this would stop
them being recognised I suppose.
the computer is something I had 5 or 6 years ago but had lots of problems all the drugs they use in intensive care when I was in a coma 3years ago have wiped a lot of what I knew about pc's from my memory so this project is to some extent therapy and some necessity so thanks for the food for thought.

[patio]

DLoad and install ALL MBoard drivers...Chipset 1st...then re-boot...then all others.

BTW Vista to Win 10 is a bit of a reach...it may NOT have Win 10 drivers.

[Geek-9pm]

About the hardware...
Here is a nice tutorial about how to install SATA drives.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-install-sata-hard-drive/

Hard drives with a Serial ATA (SATA) connector were introduced to replace IDE and Enhanced IDE (Parallel ATA) drives. SATA removes the master-slave relationship between hard drives (parallel), as each drive connects directly to a SATA host adapter or port (serial). Data transfer speeds range from 150MB/sec (SATA) and up to 300 MB/sec (SATA II). The SATA interface cable can be up to 1m long, which is an advantage in a large computer case.
Ready to upgrade your hard drive? Before you install a SATA hard drive, however, there are several things to consider. I have summarized the most important points in this article.

With pictures and video...

Please notice that SATA  drive might NOT use the molex connector. check and see. It can be a small flat connector.
You may need more power connectors. Get some 'Y' adapters from a vendor like Newegg or Amazon.

Image from Newegg. The adapter is about  $3.

[topcat]

thanks again, great info

[topcat]

thanks to all who gave advise and it deed indeed switch on a little light in my head because I hadn't checked the power supply unit and on doing so I found that two of the rails were dead and also
found that some of the connectors were dodgy also when I test them my PSU tester flash and no longer worked.
So off to my favourite toy shop and got a uprated PSU and was delighted to see all drives shown in the BIOS and all seems well, touch wood. thanks.

[Geek-9pm]

Glad you got it fixed.