Replacing HDD in a laptop

[k0NG0]

What a jib. It says it can't find the hard drive at POST and the BIOS and XP's installer says the same thing.

Downloaded the Ultimate Boot CD but it's no help. No HDD found, so there's nothing for the tools to diagnose. And I have yet to find a test that tests the actual chipset. The DVD drive works, though, so I doubt the ATA controller is toast. Possibly one channel, but how to determine that I don't know.

So either I should try a newer BIOS and see if that does anything (doubt it) or try to get a hold of an adapter to plug the HDD into a desktop computer and see if the drive is crap. Or both.

Suggestions welcome.

[3 of 7]

Make sure the little adapter piece that you took off the old hard drive is on correctly... Some of the older ones could be put on one pin to the side..

[k0NG0]

Originally Posted by 3 of 7

Make sure the little adapter piece that you took off the old hard drive is on correctly... Some of the older ones could be put on one pin to the side..

There is no such thing that I can see (I actually don't have the old HDD here. Perhaps something is missing that I need. That would make an error all the more unsurprising. Nothing in the manual Gorgo linked to indicates this, however.) The HDD tray slides out, you mount the HDD to it and it slides back in again. No way of really hooking it up incorrectly as far as I can see. Since the size of the 2.5" HDD and the connector placement is standardized, I fail to see how it could not connect when inserted. I don't have to force it, slides in very easily. No bent pins when extracted again.

[ctal]

Perhaps the jumper on the drive is set for cable select and the laptop does not support cable select. If you don't have it readily available, here is the jumper configuration definition for what I suspect is the drive you have:

Support | Travelstar 5K160 Jumpers and configuration

Or perhaps there is something funny about the jumper setting on the DVD drive, that is messing things up. If it were set to slave, or to slave via cable select, does it make sense that it would it be working without a master being present and recognized? Not sure what the answer is, but that's something to consider.

My feeling regarding bios update is that the risks outweigh the likelihood that an update will fix the problem, unless the mfr.'s website specifically indicates that a hdd-related issue was addressed in a specific bios update.

Not sure what else to suggest. Regards,
-- Al

[3 of 7]

Originally Posted by k0NG0

There is no such thing that I can see (I actually don't have the old HDD here. Perhaps something is missing that I need. That would make an error all the more unsurprising. Nothing in the manual Gorgo linked to indicates this, however.) The HDD tray slides out, you mount the HDD to it and it slides back in again. No way of really hooking it up incorrectly as far as I can see. Since the size of the 2.5" HDD and the connector placement is standardized, I fail to see how it could not connect when inserted. I don't have to force it, slides in very easily. No bent pins when extracted again.

There is your problem, there should be an adapter, I've yet to see a laptop without one... Here is one out of an inspiron

[k0NG0]

Originally Posted by 3 of 7

There is your problem, there should be an adapter, I've yet to see a laptop without one... Here is one out of an inspiron

Well, by golly that's it then...

It was my sister and her boyfriend who removed the old drive. He then took it with him to his parents (his dad is a cop and apparently has access to a bunch of nifty data retrieval things) to possibly extract some data if possible. So I never saw it.

Thanks a lot, 3 of 7.

[Gorganzola]

Yup, that is definitely the problem. It is referred to as an interposer board.

As an aside, I stuck a Seagate 7200RPM w/8MB cache drive in my Latitude C600 and boy does that thing fly now. I have Win XP SP3 RC1 on it w/Office 2k7 and no issues. The old 4200 RPM Travelstar makes a weird clicking sound right now. It's amazing what a new drive can do to the performance of a notebook. I'm not worried about heat produced by the drive, I like the added speed and will take the risk.

Originally Posted by k0NG0

Well, by golly that's it then...

It was my sister and her boyfriend who removed the old drive. He then took it with him to his parents (his dad is a cop and apparently has access to a bunch of nifty data retrieval things) to possibly extract some data if possible. So I never saw it.

Thanks a lot, 3 of 7.

[SRTDodge05]

Originally Posted by 3 of 7

There is your problem, there should be an adapter, I've yet to see a laptop without one... Here is one out of an inspiron

My toshiba laptop doesnt use the adapter, the drive plugs right into the laptop.

[3 of 7]

Originally Posted by SRTDodge05

My toshiba laptop doesnt use the adapter, the drive plugs right into the laptop.

By golly your right, I have a busted Toshiba in a drawer and had a look and it doesn't use one either...
I stand corrected.... I haven't seen a Dell without one LOL

[ctal]

On my four year old Sager laptop (model NP8886V), each of the two hard drives mounts in a removeable frame. IIRC, a connector mates to the hd and is in turn wired through a short length of ribbon cable to another connector on the frame, that mates to the laptop when the frame is inserted.
-- Al