Thinkpads Forum

My "new" 600x 2646 came with a 20gig drive, which works just fine. I have a 560x also, that I had put a 30gig in, replacing the stock 6gig. That was zero problems after I upgraded the bios in the 560x.
So, I decided to put the 30gb in the 600x -- it won't boot. I upgraded the bios to the latest one. I tried booting with the F1 key held to get into the setup and do the initialization -- it sits there forever and ever, but finally goes to setup. Makes no difference, the 600x still can't see the drive. However, I can put it in the slimbay adapter and boot off the 20gig and linux sees the 30gb drive fine.
So what's the secret? This is a Toshiba MK3017GAP HDD2159 and says it has "CYL 16383, H16, S63".
Seems quite bizarre to me that it works in the 560x and not the 600x, especially with people here reporting using much bigger drives.

If you have an external floppy drive, you might try installing the 30GB HDD in the normal HD bay, booting PC-Doctor for the 600x (IBM/Lenovo website) and doing the HDD disgnostics. It's possible that the 30GB HDD has some LBA "translation" that prevents it from being properly recognized in the 600x and this would be one way to determine whether the HDD as such is "seen" by the system in the normal bay.

Well, I tried PC-Doctor, but that doesn't help much. When I tried it with the 20gb in the main slot and the 30gb in the slimbay, it shows both drives quite well, gives all the info about both, all partitions, etc. although is says that the 30gb has no bootable partitions, which is weird.
However, when I take out the 20gb and put the 30gb in the main slot, PC-Doctor says there is no hard drive in the machine.
It's unfortunate that these thinkpad bioses don't have a regular HD utility so you can set LBA. I wonder if I put the drive into a laptop to 3.5" adapter and put it in my desktop and change the it's setting in there??

The drive is working somewhere, so that's OK. Another drive works in the machine, so the slot is OK. I've had a 40GB drive in my 600X, so they do work.

Do you have a caddy for the drive in the regular drive slot? It's possible to insert a hard drive with no caddy so that the wrong pins go into half the socket, and the other pins don't connect.

You might also try deleting all partitions, or just zeroing out the MBR. If there are partitions on the drive that don't agree with the 600X's drive geometry (a common problem with some ThinkPads), it may get confused.

Well, thanks -- I thought I had it. I whipped out the MBR and messed a bit with the drive geometry from linux, and then I tried PC-Docter again and it actually sees the drive now. Also was able to format a 100meg partition and install freedos on it, but then booted up the latest debian 4.0 in the cdrom drive and started installing -- it pukes on the partioning and formating.
Sigh! Well, at least I'm getting somewhere.

I have a 40 GB HDD in my 600X and I had no issues installing it. What HDD are you using? Can you tell us the voltage/amperage of specs of the drive? I ask this because I tried using a older higher amperage HDD on my (no sold) T22, and it did not recognize it at all. You might want to check that.

I whipped out the MBR and messed a bit with the drive geometry from linux, and then I tried PC-Docter again and it actually sees the drive now. Also was able to format a 100meg partition and install freedos on it, but then booted up the latest debian 4.0 in the cdrom drive and started installing -- it pukes on the partioning and formating.

This certainly looks like a software problem to me. If you have a floppy drive, you might try putting the HDD in the regular bay and booting from an OnTrack floppy (or use one of the limited editions for specific brands of HDD), then do the diagnostics to make sure the HDD is OK and finally zero it out or do a low-level format, then use something like XFDISK (http://home.att.net/~short.stop/freesoft/disk1.htm) to partition it. Then you should be able to use it normally.

Robbyrobot wrote:

I whipped out the MBR and messed a bit with the drive geometry from linux, and then I tried PC-Docter again and it actually sees the drive now. Also was able to format a 100meg partition and install freedos on it, but then booted up the latest debian 4.0 in the cdrom drive and started installing -- it pukes on the partioning and formating.

This certainly looks like a software problem to me. If you have a floppy drive, you might try putting the HDD in the regular bay and booting from an OnTrack floppy (or use one of the limited editions for specific brands of HDD), then do the diagnostics to make sure the HDD is OK and finally zero it out or do a low-level format, then use something like XFDISK (http://home.att.net/~short.stop/freesoft/disk1.htm) to partition it. Then you should be able to use it normally.

I finally got it, Just had to keep playing with various drive geometry, changing the heads and sectors and repartioning over and over with each change. I think the basic problem was that it originally came out of a Mac poowerbook. But the 560x bios must be a lot more forgiving. About the only thing I don't like about IBM machines is their totally crappy bios. Why the heck don't they use a bios where you can actually set parameters?

I finally got it...

Good for you!

I think the basic problem was that it originally came out of a Mac poowerbook.

If I had known that I would have suggested zeroing the drive sooner. Heaven only knows how it was partitioned and formatted in the Mac.

About the only thing I don't like about IBM machines is their totally crappy bios. Why the heck don't they use a bios where you can actually set parameters?

You echo my own thoughts

Yeah, but the thing is that it worked great in the 560x!