Where is hard disk in BIOS?

[WalkGood]

sThinkpad A30 Pent III 933MHz, WIN 2KPro

Suddenly, my Stinkpad will not boot at all. I get a screen from Intel Boot Agent saying errors
PXE-E61:Media test failure, check cable
Operating System not found.

So I attempt to go into the BIOS to see if the hard drive is being "seen". Either I do not know how to find the drives in this BIOS or my BIOS is somehow hiding the option. I do not even see the floppy drive nor the CD-ROM.

I cannot boot from any device.

The BIOS is PhoenixBios 4.0 Release 6.0 for IBM Thinkpad. Version 1.07 1EET53WW.

I went to the Phoenix site for a BIOS manual but the screens and layout in their manual do not look anything like my BIOS screens.

Where do you see the hard drives in my BIOS version?

Is there some other BIOS software that I am not seeing that can show the drives?

I see that there is also an "Embedded Controller version" 1.03 what is that?

[BillMorrow]

that error means it can't see any boot device..
neither floppy, CD or HDD..

you might start at the ibm/lenovo support page for your (quite old, in computer years) thinkpad..

there you will find the hardware maintenance manual which will be a great help..

now, that said, you SHOULD find the HDD listed in the BOOT DEVICES part of the bios..
I don't have one here to look at so memory might be in error but you should find it and that is where it will show what you have IF the HDD is not dead..

there is no place in the bios to make any settings for the HDD as in a (quite old) desktop computer..

got to go.. good luck..

[WalkGood]

that error means it can't see any boot device..
neither floppy, CD or HDD..

you might start at the ibm/lenovo support page for your (quite old, in computer years) thinkpad..

there you will find the hardware maintenance manual which will be a great help..

now, that said, you SHOULD find the HDD listed in the BOOT DEVICES part of the bios..
I don't have one here to look at so memory might be in error but you should find it and that is where it will show what you have IF the HDD is not dead..

there is no place in the bios to make any settings for the HDD as in a (quite old) desktop computer..

got to go.. good luck..

Thanks for the quick reply.


I do not see anywhere in the BIOS that shows any info about the hard drive installed. Is that because the BIOS does not "see" any hard drives?

There is nothing in the CONFIG section. Only in the STARTUP sequence does hard disk show.... and that is just to specify what order of devices.

I have backups from this drive but not from the past week. It died before my backup routine. What do I need to use to connect this laptop drive as a slave drive in another machine like a desktop?

[masssheltie]

It's not your system. My functional A30 also shows no mention of hard disks in the bios.

Not sure how that all works yet. I'm interested in installing a new hard disk, so bios info is of interest to me too.

Chris

[WalkGood]

If you find out, please post it in this thread so I'll get the email notice.

Thanks for the info.

[bontistic]

For an X22, it can be found on:
Startup > Boot > Hard Drive (expand the + sign)

For newer systems like T4x or T60:
Startup > Boot > ATA HDD0 : (HD Model Number)

Not particularly sure for your A3x but it should be something similar

[rkawakami]

@WalkGood:

By reading back the original post I get the feeling that you wanted to know where the hard disk drive parameters (i.e., cylinders, heads, sectors) are being stored in BIOS. Is that correct? If you are looking for them, I don't believe you can get that information from the A3x BIOS Setup screens.

If you merely want to know if the drive is "seen" by the BIOS, then bontistic's directions for the X22 is about right. Highlight the Hard Drive entry in the Boot menu and if it has a "+" sign in front, use the directions on the right side of the screen (press Enter key) to expand or collapse the entry. Furthermore, you can use the Insert key to enable or disable the device. If it doesn't have the "+" sign, then the BIOS did not recognize the disk drive. You could have a problem with the drive itself or the interface on the motherboard. If you are worried about how to go about installing another hard drive in the system, it should be as simple as swapping it out with the new drive. You don't have to change anything in the BIOS as the drive should be recognized automatically. I did this with my A31 at work. I Ghosted the original drive onto a larger one and then swapped out the old drive.