T40 HDD Upgrade Fails - New HD not recognized

[rgrossha]

T40p. Wanted a faster drive. After reading all about it here, I went off and got the Hitachi 7K60.

Used Acronis to clone the disk. That seemed to go ok.

New disk will boot fine when it is in the Ultra Slim Bay. Seems faster, too.

Unfortunately, the T40 doesn't recognize it when I put it in the normal HD position. Doesn't show up in the boot order, nothing.

When I put the drive in a USB enclosure and attach it, it works fine.

I'm thinking an interface (electrical connection) issue, but wanted to ask others' opinions first.

The old drive works fine in the normal HD slot.

Weird. Help, suggestions appreciated.

Rob

[pae77]

Sounds like an issue with the master boot record (MBR) that frequently crops up.

I would suggest trying the cloning procedure again following the steps below exactly:

1. Boot up with both hard drives installed in the TP.

2. Use the "clone" feature of TI to clone the main hd (C) over to the one in the ultrabay or USB enclosure.

3. After the process completes, SHUT DOWN AND PHYSICALLY REMOVE the newly cloned drive from the system BEFORE REBOOTING. The removed newly cloned drive, when installed in the primary hard drive slot in the TP, should now be a bootable clone of the original drive. When installed in the primary hard drive slot in the TP, it should boot up fine. The first time it boots, an Acronis True Image utility should automatically run and copy the original drive's MBR over to the new drive. Thereafter, the new drive should boot up fine as drive C in the primary drive position.

[rgrossha]

Thanks everybody. It WAS electrical. The fact that everybody looked at this thread and there was one suggestion (a good one, I might add) helped convince me of that.

It turns out it was two screws. There are four screws on the original drive. Two hold the black plastic "mounting" at the rear on, and two appeared to do nothing.

When I transfered the other two screws (the ones closest to the connector) to the new drive, voila!

Booted up, did everything it was supposed to do.

Thanks again for your assistance.