So I have two hard drives and two DVD drives, and I wanted another hard drive. I got a SATA one, and installed it just now, but Windows doesn't recognise it. What to do?
#7, bear with us. N00bs ask for haaaaalp so it's not like we don't know what we're dealing with, here. :^)
When we techies call a piece of hardware "good", we mean functional and usable. If the drive powers up and then can hold data, it's "good". In the sense I used, I was asking if the drive is suspected to have problems (i.e. is "bad"), and largely if the drive powered up.
To detect if the drive powers up, you'd have to know how to detect that. Obviously, when you hold the drive in your hand right out of the box or something, it's laying inert in your hand. It's cold, isn't vibrating, and makes no sound. When it powers up, it vibrates, makes some sound (which varies for each drive), and soon warms up (often becoming hot to the touch in a few minutes). To properly detect this things, it's a short procedure to simply have the drive out of the case yet connected to the cabling. Since cases are crowded and noisy, you have to have it out in order to hear it (unless you have a stethoscope handy).
Once you determine the drive is giving you the proper physical indications (warm, noisy, vibrating), then you deal with the BIOS. What make and model of computer do you have? Search for the BIOS tutorial or something that unit. If you have a SATA port on the motherboard, there MUST be a SATA setting in the BIOS.