T23 Hard Drive problem... please help

[mistamoni]

I posted a topic a week ago stating that I couldn't get my BIOS to detect my harddrive. Well, I popped out the harddrive, and put it back in, and it seems to detect it fine on the BIOS now. I also bought a dvd/cd drive, so I can load an OS finally. Windows setup finally starts to load, but a bit through it, it says that the computer is still not detecting a harddrive.

I'm guessing the problem may be because a friend of mine formatted the haddrive using an unknown program, and may have damaged the drive. Don't you have to format drive specifically with the drives compatible program? It was working fine prior to him formatting it, and it would at least load as a harddrive, but now nothing.

My question is, is there anything I can do to maybe format the harddrive correctly, or run some kind of diagnostic to check for what may be actually wrong? Are there any programs designed specifically for these ibm harddrives? The program has to be able to run from DOS, as I don't have any OS on the drive now. I really wanna try to see if this can be fixed b4I scour ebay again to buy a harddrive. Please help, I'm pretty desperate.

[mgo]

II'm guessing the problem may be because a friend of mine formatted the haddrive using an unknown program, and may have damaged the drive. Don't you have to format drive specifically with the drives compatible program? It was working fine prior to him formatting it, and it would at least load as a harddrive, but now nothing.

My question is, is there anything I can do to maybe format the harddrive correctly.

To paraphrase the commercial, "friends don't let friends format their hard drive"

One solution would be to put in the drive and then let the machine boot over any XP or Vista install disk and use the Repair utility to re-do the MBR.

If this sounds beyond your experience level try a Googe search for instructions and howto info, write that down and try it out.

Then try a format. Then you will need to re-install your operating system or restore an image of the drive if your had created one before your troubles began.

[mistamoni]

I tried to fix the MBR, but no matter how many times I press "R" during setup, nothing happens. Xp setup boots all the drivers and what not, but when it gets to the part where you're suppose to specify where you want to save, it says the following:

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.

Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

Setup cannot continue. To quit setup, press F3.

I tried pushing F2 for ASR, and F6 to specify drive, but both of them says to insert a disk and press enter. I have no idea what disk they are talking about. I bought this laptop from a garage sale, so I didn't get any "manufacturer-supplied diagnostic program". Are there any 3rd party programs that can check the diagnostic of the HD instead?

[andyP]

This may be a stupid question, but, is the hard drive in a caddy? My T23 for whatever reason always has problems with a HDD without a caddy.

[mistamoni]

Yes, harddrive is in the caddy that came with the laptop.

[rkawakami]

Are there any 3rd party programs that can check the diagnostic of the HD instead?

You can obtain a copy of the PC Doctor diagnostic suite from IBM here:

PC Doctor for DOS T2x (diskettes)

or

.ISO image of same program hosted on my site

Create the boot media, boot the system with the first diskette or CD, hit the "enter" key a couple of times as you swap diskettes/load diskette images off the CD, select Diagnostic, then Fixed Disks.

You could also try downloading the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test utility.

[mgo]

Yes, harddrive is in the caddy that came with the laptop.

Have you physically removed the hard drive and checked for any bent or broken pins?

[bobgarty]

Also, did your friend put a jumper on to set ide master/slave status when he used the disk - that would stop the disk from detecting

FYI - another option if u need to rewrite the mbr is to download a full win98 bootdisk from bootdisk.com - one that has the FDISK command - boot from it and then run fdisk /mbr

[mistamoni]

Yes, I have physically taken the drive out many times and gone over it. Nothing is wrong with it, and it's not set as slave.

I will try the win98 method, but still am having doubts that it may work. Thanks for the input.

[bobgarty]

Rays suggestion of trying booting with PCDoctor or the hitachi drive fitness software should really be your first steps - if neither see the drive then it is probably toast.

[l.butler]

After you have run the PC Doctor hdd diagnostics, and assuming things check out, I would suggest that you get a LiveCD boot disk, like Knoppix, that will allow you to boot up a working OS off a cd. This will allow you to see if you can mount partitions on the hdd, and if so, try to fix some of the problems.

Incidentally, I had the same problem with my hdd about 5 months ago (no hdd found; cured by reseating). This was the first sign that the hdd was terminally ill.

[mistamoni]

Sorry guys. I can't seem to even load PC doctor on it. The BIOS just won't detect the Harddrive at all. When I tried to run pc doctor, it said insert high volume disk in drive B:\ and press enter. I tried to run the series of floppies, but it went no where. Anything I try to run, it either says "This program can not run in DOS" or "No OS detected on the system".

I even took the entire laptop apart to the bones, just to check if maybe the plastic thing that connects the harddrive to the mother board is loose. Everything seems to be in place, and harddrive connects properly... but the bios just won't detect it. It picks up my USB and CD drive just fine though.

I'm gonna try to see if I can do anything with knoppix as some suggested, but it's looking hopeless.

[Robbyrobot]

You could also try downloading the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test utility.

If the drive is from Hitachi, since all of these "drive fitness" programs are just branded versions of OnTrack that will only work on a specific HDD brand. IBM, Western Digital and the rest offer the same program, but branded for their HDDs. The programs are available free under various names at the HDD manufacturer websites.

Frankly, this is the best suggestion going, and should be the first thing to try when a HDD is not recognized. In another thread, there was a case where the HDD was similarly not recognized, and it turned out that it had been taken from a Mac and had totally different partitioning and formatting than anything used in the PC world. Something like this is easily detected and corrected with the kind of software you mention. I generally zero out the drive, then re-partition it to cure such problems.

Sorry guys. I can't seem to even load PC doctor on it. The BIOS just won't detect the Harddrive at all. When I tried to run pc doctor, it said insert high volume disk in drive B:\ and press enter. I tried to run the series of floppies, but it went no where. Anything I try to run, it either says "This program can not run in DOS" or "No OS detected on the system".

Sounds to me like you're not booting from the floppy, since that would be A:\. How is your floppy drive attached? Is this a USB floppy (that might give problems when you try to boot from it)? Or is it the one you put in the Ultrabay, which should boot without problems? If it's the latter, make sure the drive A: floppy is the first boot device in the BIOS, since otherwise you're certain to get the "No OS" error.

[mistamoni]

Sounds to me like you're not booting from the floppy, since that would be A:\. How is your floppy drive attached? Is this a USB floppy (that might give problems when you try to boot from it)? Or is it the one you put in the Ultrabay, which should boot without problems? If it's the latter, make sure the drive A: floppy is the first boot device in the BIOS, since otherwise you're certain to get the "No OS" error.

No, I do load from the floppy, A:\. I put the floppy drive in the ultrabay, and it's already set to load 1st from the boot menu. However, when I put in pc doctor, it says to extract the program to another drive, drive B:\. When I type B:\ on dos, it just shows what's currently on the A: drive. C:\ is not being detected at all, unless I start the pc with my USB, in which case the laptop is making the USB drive the temporary C: drive. I even bought a cd drive just to try to fix this laptop.

The hard drive itself is a Hitachi Travelstar N79 drive. I will try to see if I can run any of the programs from the Hitachi support site, but I'm having high doubts about it... since the bios can't detect it in the first place, so what will the program diagnose?

I swear I wasted soo many cd's burning all these iso's already. Hopefully something works soon.

[Robbyrobot]

No, I do load from the floppy, A:\. I put the floppy drive in the ultrabay, and it's already set to load 1st from the boot menu. However, when I put in pc doctor, it says to extract the program to another drive

Oh, I see what you're doing, but you have to create the PC-Doctor diskettes first, on another machine, and then boot them on your computer. You won't be able to make the boot diskettes on the same machine you want to test.

The hard drive itself is a Hitachi Travelstar N79 drive. I will try to see if I can run any of the programs from the Hitachi support site...

No, just the "drive fitness test boot disk" or whatever Hitachi calls it. And you'll have to make this diskette on another machine too.

...but I'm having high doubts about it... since the bios can't detect it in the first place, so what will the program diagnose?

You won't know unless you try, and this is the only thing left to suggest.

I swear I wasted soo many cd's burning all these iso's already.

What ISOs? What CDs?. Both the PC-Doctor and the various drive fitness test book disks are 1.44MB floppies. The programs you get from the websites create the disks.

[mistamoni]

I am using my desktop to create the "boot floppy disks", then trying them on the laptop. The cd's i've wasted are trying several different diagnostic as well as linux based OS to run (copying the iso's and making a bootable cd).

I ran drive fitness form the hitachi website... and as I predicted, nothing happens. It can not detect the harddrive, no matter how many times I try to rescan it. I'm guessing the only thing to do now is buy a new HD. I'm just hoping that the computer itself is not faulty.