Make T30 think my hard drive is legit?

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titanicmusic14 · #1 Post by **titanicmusic14** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 10:50 pm

I have 2 new hard drives. One is a 60gb toshiba and the other is a 160 Samsung. Both are IDE. Neither of them work inside my T30 thinkpad. I am saying in the BIOS it does not register . When I put in my 40 GB the one that is "travelstar" it works fine but it is what I am trying to get rid of. Both of my other drives are confirmed to be working in an external usb case. I have tried the IBM firmware tool. What should I do?
I thought if maybe I cloned with XXcopy or and copy the the boot data .. It still didn't recognize it in the BIOS under startup where it shows the HDD model #.
One of the thinkpad forums suggested that there is a "white list" in the BIOS that only allows certain brands and/or hard drive sizes. If so could i cheat the system by making the BIOS think it is an "approved" IBM HDD. Maybe clone somethign or cloak something? I have the latests updates 1.07 and 2.10 so I don't think it's that. There aren't any jumpers on the back so I dont think it's a pin issue.

#2 Post by **Harryc** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 7:01 am

There is no 'white list' for hard drives on a T30. Any 2.5" IDE laptop hard drive should work. I'd try updating to the latest BIOS and also zero out one of the drives with activekilldisk and try again.
http://www.killdisk.com/

#3 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 7:06 am

Welcome to the forum.
There is no whitelist for hard disks in the T30 (only in T43/R52).
You should have the latest BIOS (2.10) and ECP (1.07).
To test functionality, burn a CD from PC-Doctor .ISO http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 56222.html
If those hard disks have been formatted outside of the T30, they will not work.
You need to format them INSIDE the T30.

Lots of people here have used Acronis TrueImage and its siblings successfully to clone hard disks.

Neil · #4 Post by **Neil** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 7:20 am

Did you put your new drives in a caddy with all four screws?

titanicmusic14 · #5 Post by **titanicmusic14** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 8:27 am

Neil wrote:Did you put your new drives in a caddy with all four screws?

No offense but that sounds overly simplistic. I have only used two screws in my travelstar and it works just fine. Either way, I have used all for screws. Thanks

titanicmusic14 · #6 Post by **titanicmusic14** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 8:55 am

RealBlackStuff wrote:Welcome to the forum.
There is no whitelist for hard disks in the T30 (only in T43/R52).
You should have the latest BIOS (2.10) and ECP (1.07).
To test functionality, burn a CD from PC-Doctor .ISO http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 56222.html
If those hard disks have been formatted outside of the T30, they will not work.
You need to format them INSIDE the T30.

Lots of people here have used Acronis TrueImage and its siblings successfully to clone hard disks.

I hear that people have had success with Acronis I will try to get my hands on it. However, I cloned with xp copy from the t30 via usb enclosure. When I put either of my new hard drives in the IDE slot, The BIOS stalls for about 30 seconds. Are you saying that PC doctor could solve this?

Majestic · #7 Post by **Majestic** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 8:59 am

Welcome to the forum Titanicmusic14.

One other suggestion..... check to see if the drives are jumpered and what they are set at. Make sure they are set to Master.

#8 Post by **Harryc** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:47 am

titanicmusic14 wrote:No offense but that sounds overly simplistic.

You'd be surprised how many people post here and don't put in all (4) screws. It 'can' prevent the drive from making proper contact with the interface pins in the drive bay if all the screws are not in. The screws are actually used for alignment of the caddy in the bay.

#9 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:53 am

XP copy may have copied, but I doubt if it has cloned!
If it's not an IBM-produced MBR, Thinkpads have problems with 'foreign' (read: non-IBM formatted) hard disks.

PC Doctor will find any hard disk, unless there is a motherboard problem.

jronald · #10 Post by **jronald** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 6:08 pm

I had a T30 that no matter the caddy or not it would not align n the IDE socket. Take the keyboard off and look as you insert the HDD like normal. Ill bet you see the top row of pins riding over the socket. Pushing down softly on the top of the HDD as you near the insertion point will allow it plug in properly.

Ron

moronoxyd · #11 Post by **moronoxyd** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 3:01 am

titanicmusic14 wrote:However, I cloned with xp copy from the t30 via usb enclosure.

That is you had the new drives in the USB enclosure and cloned the content from the internal HDD onto these drives?
That will almost certainly not work.

Thinkpads have problems with hard drives partitioned in other computers or in external enclosures.
To make things work you have to put the new drive into the Thinkpad, the old one into the USB enclosure and then clone from the external drive onto the internal one.

titanicmusic14 · #12 Post by **titanicmusic14** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 2:48 pm

The hard drive showed up a few times after using the software to clone it that you guys recommended however it kept resetting and just freezing when I installed the OS and then it stopped recognizing it again. I just decided to purchase a new motherboard. I will post my results in a few days when it gets here.

Make T30 think my hard drive is legit?

Make T30 think my hard drive is legit?

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