'Error 0200 Failure Fixed Disk 1' when installing new HDD.

[Cleojasp]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and have a problem that has me stumped. I own a Thinkpad T43p, 2.26Ghz CPU and 2GB RAM. The model is a 2668-LG2. After checking various sites, including the IBM main site, I recently went ahead and bought a new hard drive (although, second hand), as it showed as being compatible with this model.

I tried installling the drive and the first message I got was 'Error 0200 Failure Fixed Disk 1' and it suggested I went to system setup, which I did and couldn't see the hdd at all. Then I tried to load the OS and once it went through the hardware config and initial stages of Windows Setup, it says 'Setup did not find any hard disk installed in you computer' etc...

The hdd I have just bought is a Seagate Momentus 5400.3 ST9160821A. I made the presumption that a firmware upgrade wouldn't work, as it would have to be able to see the disk in order to know whether it needs an upgrade. Am I wrong?

Any help would be very much appreciated!

[mpcook]

A few obvious items to check. Is the drive properly seated? Is it inserted in the correct orientation? I have slipped up in the past in both respects, and driven (no pun intended) myself crazy trying to troublshoot. Check for bent pins. Finally, check the drive on another machine if you can, to be sure it's good.

Mike

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the forum.
That's a 160GB IDE drive, which should work.
Transfer the caddy and screws from the 'old' hard disk.
Then turn the HD over (label to the bottom) and insert it.
You will get a 2010 error for non-approved HD, but if you have the latest BIOS, there's an option in it to auto-continue.
With previous BIOS versions you need to press Esc to continue.
It will not do any harm to the laptop, just one annoying beep at boot and a wait of a few seconds.
Can be ignored.

[Cleojasp]

@ mpcook - Thanks for the reply. I did actually check that the hard drive was seated properly and that the pins were not bent, as I too have come up against the same issues in the past. Unfortunately though, the only other laptop I have uses a SATA HDD, so I cannot test the Seagate IDE drive in it. This is the most frustrating part, as I could very quickly determine whether or not the drive is a dud.

@RealBlackStuff - Thanks for the advice, but again, I had tried all of the things you have suggested. I have owned Thinkpads in the past and have experienced the infamous 2010 error and was able to overcome it with no real issues, but this is different. This is a 0200 Failure Fixed Disk 1 error, and the laptop just doesn't seem to see the drive. When going into the BIOS (Version 1.29 (1YET65WW)) >Startup>Boot> in the Boot priority order list, it just shows IDE HDD0: There is no label showing at all.

Any other ideas?

[GomJabbar]

Hold the laptop upside-down when seating the hard drive, otherwise you may have it seated one row of pins off... Been there, done that.

[Cleojasp]

Thanks GomJabbar, but still not being seen.

[Harryc]

Put the old drive back in. If it still works the new drive is bad.

[tfflivemb2]

Put the old drive back in. If it still works the new drive is bad.

+1

[ajkula66]

Given that this is a T43p that we're discussing, I'm betting on a bad SouthBridge...and hoping, for once, that I'm wrong.

There's a thread by kajencik somewhere describing this type of behaviour which ended up in a planar swap...

if the old hard drive works fine, then I'm wrong and you need a new "new" hard drive.

Good luck.

[Cleojasp]

Right, to all those that suggested reseating the drive, I apologise. Very embarrased! After trying to install the old drive several times and finding that it worked intermittently, I could only come to the conclusion that it must be a sensitive IDE connection, so after a few more forceful attempts at installing the new drive, it was finally recognised. I daren't take it out now though!

So thanks again for all of your help and again, apologies for the schoolboy error!

[mpcook]

No reason to be embarassed! This has happened to many of us TP'ers! This is great news so happy to hear it. Good luck with your Thinkpad!

Mike

[tfflivemb2]

No reason to be embarassed! This has happened to many of us TP'ers!

Absolutely!