Thinkpads Forum

I just bought a Hitachi 60gb hd (7200rpm) to replace my old drive in my Thinkpad 600x with 512 mb memory running winxp sp2. I have the latest bios update. I can't get the computer to see the drive when it is in the primary slot...the computer can see it when it is in the ultrabay slot and I can clone it or boot off of it, only when it is in the ultrabay. I even booted off a winxp installation cd and tried to install windows onthe new drive after I formated it and windows couldn't find the drive and told me to exit setup.. Anyone know what I should try next or has anyone used this drive with this computer? Thanks Tree

Check the Master/Slave pins on the drive, although it should have come set as a master. IIRC, it shouldn't show as a Slave in the bay as that's a secondary IDE channel.

Report back.

I have had 7K60s in many 600Xs without any problems.

Regards,

James

The drive came without a jumper and it is set up as a master (no jumper) and according to Hitachi I shouldn't need a jumper. I don't understand what the difference is between a secondary IDE channel and the drive being a slave or how to tell what is going on. All I can see is that the drive shows up in the ultrabay. I don't see any place that identifies the drive as a slave (the bios tells me nothing!). Forgive me I am kind of new at these things. Good to know that you've got one of these drives in a 600x. Maybe there is something wrong with my thinkpad? Thanks Tree

Put the new drive in the main bay. Remove any other drive. Start EasySetup and Initialize the system. Reboot. Report results.

Dear whizkid...this morning I cloned the drive again with ghost 9 (I have used true image and two older versions of ghost so far) and did what you suggested. I put the drive into the primary slot and went into easy step program and inialized the drive and rebooted. I still get error message 174. I didn't putting the drive in as a blank disk (without anything on it) in the primary slot and then initializing the drive. But yesterday the computer would not recognize the drive when it was blank in the primary location. I know this because I booted with a winxp installation cd.What is initializing supposed to do? Anyway I am still at a loss as what to do next. Thanks...someone suggested using a windows tool called sysprep on the source drive first before I clone.But it seems like it is a hardware or bios problem, not a windows one.

Try putting the drive in the main HDD compartment and boot with a Win98 floppy and Fdisk. See if it's noticed this way. If it is, go ahead and select largest drive and use entire area and partition the disc, using the entire area. Then don't reboot, but shut down. Next, use your XP installation CD and see what happens. Unpartitioned discs do wierd things in ThinkPads.

Made in Japan: I tried booting from a win98 floppy and ran fdisk and the the computer's message was that it didn't find any fixed disks. It must be a hardware problem or a bug in the bios...though I have no Iidea how to fix it if it is that kind of problem. I did reflash the bios though it is the same version that I had on it. Thanks

Did you try "initializing" after flashing the bios? Many times that helps.

I did try just now reinstalling the bios (running that program on the floppy) and then initializing ...still no luck. I have noticed that it takes a while to get into the easy setup program---someitmes it is slow or doesn't work.

This seems to happen when a HDD isn't recognized. I'm stumped too as to your problem. Can you Fdisk with the HDD in the ultrabay? Also, are you using the HDD adapter (the aluminum shell and 4 screws) with the main HDD location? I have had HDD's not recognized when I tried to use one without one of these. If so, when you put your old drive back in, is it recognized? Seems like maybe the pins aren't lodged firmly in the slot. Sorry, maybe these aren't solutions at all, but a few more things to try if you haven't tried them.

Thanks again for your help even though things aren't really working out. Yes I have had the drive in the aluminum adapter. And as far as I can tell the drive is seating ok. I couldn't figure out how to fdisk with the drive in the secondary or ultra bay position. On the weekend a friend who has a 60gb drive is going to put it in my computer to see if he has the same problem. I guess that will tell us something or maybe get us more confused. Doesn't it seem though that it is not a partiition problem if the bios doesn't even find the drive before it gets to the boot record etc.?

Tree,

Humor me for a few minutes. Depopulate your 600X completely, i.e. take out all of the additional RAM, the CD/DVD, any PC cards, all HDs, etc.

With the system bare, go into EZSetup (press and hold the F1 key down while powering on the system, release after the MEMCOUNT completes and you hear the POST beep).

Initialize the system, OK your way out and then turn the system OFF.

Now install the 60GB HD and go into EZSetup again. Initialize the system and shutdown again.

Now, BOOT from your W98 floppy and FDISK the HD. If it's recognized, make sure the primary partition is set ACTIVE.

Report back.

Regards,

James

hi james...i just followed your instructions, taking out the extra ram, removing the computer from the port replicator, taking out all the drives, cd, network cards and then turned on computer, went into easy setup, etc, all like you said and sadly the drive is still not recognized. Thanks. My friend is going to put another 60 gb drive in it and see what happens This has turned out to be a real stumper!!

Sounds more and more like you've got a duff HD, sad to say.

Regards,

James

Well this weekend a friend put my new 60gb hd in his Thinkpad (I think it is a T23) and he was able to install windows 2000 on it and boot off it in the primary slot. We also put a older model 60 gb hd drive from his computer in my thinkpad 600x and the computer wouldn't recognize it in the primary slot. We took another drive he had (a 40gb) and put in my thinkpad and that worked fine. My conclusion is that for some reason 60 gb hard drives won't work in my 600x thinkpad in the primary slot even with the most recent bios (55ww). There must be a problem with my computer or maybe these drives are finicky about being recognized.

Well, if you can live with a 40 rather than a 60GB, then you're all set. I don't recall however that 600's don't recognize 60's. Which brand HDD did you say you were using?

I'm sorry that all I can say is that's just bizarre! There has to be something else going on with your 600X that's preventing it from recognizing the drive.

Regards,

James

The hd is a new Hitachi model HTS7260M9. Thanks to everyone who have tried to help me with this yes crazy thing.

iamtree wrote:The hd is a new Hitachi model HTS7260M9. Thanks to everyone who have tried to help me with this yes crazy thing.

FWIW, I just pulled the 7K60 from my backup 600X and it's an Hitachi HTS726060M9AT00.

This drive has been giving yeoman service for almost 2 years now.

I just don't understand why it won't work in your 600X.

Regards,

James

My 9FU has a 60GB that I just installed and it saw it, no problem. I am running 592Mb ram, 55ww bios, and Win2kpro, Ghost 9.0. I did however have no luck getting the drive copy part in Ghost to actually work to properly and completely copy my old 12gig to my new 60gig, but thats another topic...

Can you revert back to your last bios and see if it recognizes the drive and install a different OS. I have not been very keen on the idea of WinXP on the 600x since reading the now lost "concerns for installing WinXP on thinkpad..." on IBM's website. the 55ww bios was for XP support, but it seems lately when I update from the IBM matrix it screws up my 600X.

The driver matrix has changed too (I think they screwed up a link here and there) the last video driver I downloaded for mine with win2000 turned my video green, everything had a green tint to it.

A friend pointed out to me that he remembers me having a similar problem installing a 30gb hard drive a while back. I looked up my old email and he was right...I had almost forgotten that I had almost the same problem when I tried to upgrade my 12 gig drive to a new 30gb in 2002. I wrote to all my computer friends and thinkpad support groups and we couldn't get it to work. I returned the drive to newegg anad got a replacement and then the drive worked (I actually don't have any emails or notes on what I did at the time after I got my 30gb replacement drive, but it is the one I am now using). So I returned the drive today and will see what happens when I get the new one. Your idea of trying an older bios is a possibility. One thing that is interesting is that when I was trying to install my 30gb driive, and my computer was under warranty then, IBM said that they don't support those drives in my machine. They also told me that recently when I spoke to a tech person on the phone, they said that my machine won't support a 60gb drive, though I don't think he knew much. Tree

Originally they were not supported over 18GB. However, you can see all over the net that people have installed up to 80GB or more. Some say you need software to get it done.
When I did mine I put the 60Gb drive in the main HDD bay and entered "easy setup" and initialized the system, performed a System Restore with the restoration CD that came with my 600X originally.

AHH try that!! Initialize the system, Boot to your restore CD and let it do it's thing. Be sure that your restore CD is for your machine and processor speed SPECIFICALLY.

If you don't have one you can get them on ebay from time to time. I have a cd for the 600x @600mhz w NT?? and software selections cds for the 600x with win95 or 98 and the 600E w/winNT.

There's a vast difference between IBM saying "we don't support that HD in that laptop" and their saying "that laptop doesn't support that HD".

The former is correct, as the HD was released long after the 600X reached it's EOL and they have no database to refer problems to.

The latter is wrong as proven by the hudreds of people who have installed this HD (and larger) in their machines. I've had several 80GB HDs in my 600X in order to clone them for clients. The "3 spindle" capability of the 600X with the external floppy installed has lead to my keeping an extra around the shop just for those eventualities. I'll probably be cloning a 100GB Seagate next week, I'll let you all know how it goes.

This is all beside the fact that Hitachi (and before them IBM) tested and certified the 7K60 to work with the 600 and 600E series Thinkpads and anything newer! http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib. ... K60_cs.pdf

Regards,

James

Yesterday I installed new 100 Gb WD Scorpio in my IBM Thinkpad 600x. Works perfectly. No problem at all