Thinkpad R40 not recognizing HDD's?

[innotime2]

Hello, I have a thinkpad r40 and once i get by the firt welcome screen with the bios option i then get a no operating system found error. I then try to boot with xp disc and once i get passed the hit enter to begin install it says no device was found. I have tried this with a 30gb, 40gb, 80gb and 120gb. I can't imagine all being bad but i do not have any option of trying them on another laptop unfortunately. So is the only option this being a bad motherboard? Anything in BIOS? Thanks for the help.

[BillMorrow]

only thing i can think of is MAYBE a dirty plug on the system board..
and only if you have been swapping drives in and out over the past8 years or so..
those things DO wear out but its not something that happens frequently..

if you have a 2nd HDD adapter you might try booting from the ultrabay..

or if you have a bootable CD you might try booting from that just to see if the system board is ok..

wait a bit and some smarter forum members will have better answers..

welcome to the forum..

[ajkula66]

Hello, I have a thinkpad r40 and once i get by the firt welcome screen with the bios option i then get a no operating system found error.

Let's start from scratch here:

a) Is your hard drive securely positioned in its caddy, tightened by all four screws and pushed all the way in with the HD cover?

b) If the answer to the first question is "yes", is the drive visible in the list of booting devices when you press F12 on the initial boot?

[innotime2]

Sorry guys I posted this before bed for some answers.

- Yes as far as I can tell the hdd is pushed all the way in. I went as far as taking the palm rest half off just so i can see the hdd go into the slot. Kind of hard to see but definitely goes into the holes. It's ide by the way. Looks like maybe I will have to see if the slot needs cleaned like suggested, althought my luck is not that good.

- Not to sure about if the hdd is being recognized. it says nothing about a hdd in the bios. When I click boot options it says the normal options -USB then HDD , cd etc but usually next to hdd on most computers it will have the model number of the hdd but on this laptop it just says hdd with no other info, so not sure if that means it's not being read at all or what. Don't know if it usually says the hdd model number like others.

The more I think about it the more I think it's just shot but never had a laptop do this. The laptop itself is in excellent condition which made me think it's just some error but who knows now.

Next step should I try cleaning the connector?