Drives Not Being Properly Detected

[char507]

It's been a while since i've posted but over the past few weeks i've been running into a problem that seems to be occurring more and more frequently. I figured i'd head this issue off before it becomes fatal.

The rig with the problem has the following specs:
Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R
Intel Core 2 Duo e6600
Primary Drive: Western Digital WDC WD3200AAKS
Secondary Drive: SAMSUNG HD501LJ
OS: Windows 7 x64 Professional

The problem is that upon boot-up / POST the two hard drives are not detected and the system boots to a Boot Disk Failure. When I restart the system and enter the bios, the primary drive (SATA1) is not detected at all and the secondary drive (SATA2) shows a weird name and does not post all of the specs. When I enter SATA1 and SATA2 and tell the BIOS to automatically detect drives, it picks up the primary drive and enters the correct information for the secondary drive.

I have actually experienced some weird issues with this build since inception and have changed out various pieces of hardware but I have never done anything with the motherboard (besides update the BIOS). I'm thinking that maybe the southbridge controller is dying or some other part of the motherboard....

Any suggestions or thoughts?

 

[Nenu]

Reset the CMOS in case it is corrupt.
Try different sata cables
Try different sata ports.
Try different drives to see if its the hard disk controller on the motherboard failing.
Try another PSU in case there is excess noise or voltage regulation problems.

 

[engiNURD]

I'd also try to reflash the BIOS.