Can't boot from Toshiba Hard drive!

[djgillery]

Perhaps somebody else would like to set up their drive as a slave to confirm this!!!.

[sojourner]

Perhaps somebody else would like to set up their drive as a slave to confirm this!!!.

djgillery, tried setting a WD 320GB as slave in a T41 ... NG, no boot, HDD doesn't even show up in boot device list (F12), LED (HDD Indicator) was full glow for a while as BIOS tried to figure out what the heck was going on!

BTW, check out this article:
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/c ... ing-c.html

Notice the following in the article:
This is an IDE/ATA interface signal carried on pin #39, which is used for two functions: indicating that a drive is active (during operation), and also indicating that a slave drive is present on the channel (at startup).

Was wondering what would happen if pin 39 were taken out of the circuit . The only thing which brothers me is what the 'active' signal is used for; is it for the LED (hard drive indicator) or something important, such as TIMING on the BUS??

If you are adventureous, try cutting the circuit board trace to pin 39. The drive should no longer showup as slave. If the 'active' signal is only for LED purposed, perhaps you can live with no HDD LED and the HDD should appear as a master. BTW, reason I say cut the trace (as opposed to snipping the pin) is because the trace can easily be 'jumpered' again with a solder blob (the pin cannot easily be replaced). You can cut the trace (carefully) with a new sharp razor blade.

Gotta run ...

[RealBlackStuff]

Wow, if you calculate all the time spent on this HD, and multiply it by a minimum wage of say $7.50, you probably could have bought 2 new HDs by now.
Hat off to your persistence.

[djgillery]

Cut the track to Pin 39 made no difference HDD LED came on and drive still seen as slave. This thread looks interesting, what do you think?.

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread46058.html

Could I modify the files and update the firmware from HB002A to HB002G?

[sojourner]

Cut the track to Pin 39 made no difference HDD LED came on and drive still seen as slave. This thread looks interesting, what do you think?.

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread46058.html

Could I modify the files and update the firmware from HB002A to HB002G?

Too bad about that trace cut not working. As far as the thread goes, not sure what you were looking at that caught your attention. They were talking about firmware updating but I didn't get the connection between your situation and their discussion. Are you thinking there is an incompatibility because of firmware? And that's why the drive shows up as slave?

I'm inclined to now think there is a (broken) hardware issue but don't know.

BTW: did some searching and came up with a utility that may do a HDD trick I've been wanting to accomplish on a 320GB drive here; wondered if it may be useful to you?
http://hddscan.com/

[djgillery]

The theory is that the drive is flashed with firmware HB002A that makes the drive a slave device and that the firmware HB002G is for master (My theory!). The IBM hard drive firmware update utility doesn't mention the toshiba MK6022GAX so says update not neccessary when you try to update firmware. I was wondering if it was possible to modify some of the files, add the HB002G.bin and rebuild a cd iso so that I can re-flash the firmware!. A long shot I know and it probably won't happen unless somebody else has done similar, hence reference to the link.
I'm going to investigate your pin 39 idea further, as you say it is used to let the laptop know that a slave is present. I cut the track but maybe it goes elsewhere so what I will do is remove pin 39 from a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter lead and try it again on the desktop. I can then also set up another good drive as a slave and check the desktop BIOS to see if it is detected as a slave. Hopefully it won't and will thus prove the pin 39 theory. Many thanks for tips and ideas I won't be able to do anything else with the drive till monday because its at work but I'll keep you informed about progress (if any). cheers

[sojourner]

I'm going to investigate your pin 39 idea further, as you say it is used to let the laptop know that a slave is present. I cut the track but maybe it goes elsewhere so what I will do is remove pin 39 from a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter lead and try it again on the desktop. I can then also set up another good drive as a slave and check the desktop BIOS to see if it is detected as a slave. Hopefully it won't and will thus prove the pin 39 theory.

djgillery, considering this you may want to check out
http://www.martinmellor.com/freebies/pi ... pinout.htm

Provides some nice detail!