Trying to use 7200rpm 60gb in a31p

[sandeepgupta]

I just purchased a 7k60 (P/N 08K0939) and was attempting to install the OS from my product recovery CDs. Unfortunately, the drive is not recognized and I get an error #88.
I called IBM support and they told me the drive is not supported in the a31p. Only the 5400rpm is supported. They also told me that the A31P cannot boot from a drive in the 2nd HDD adapter.

When I plug the 7k60 in my 2nd HDD adapter, I can access it fine in XP, so I'm starting to doubt IBM support's comments.

Has anyone been successful using the 7k60 in the primary HDD slot? Were there any tricks? Did you use the provided Recovery CDs? My recovery CDs have P/N 01R6044 and 01R6064.

Thanks

[sandeepgupta]

I've gone through a few more debugging steps.
When the 7k60 is in the location of my primary HDD, the drive is not recognized by the Thinkpad.
When the 7k60 is in the 2nd HDD adapter, it is recognized and can be used, but it can not be used to boot. While in the 2nd HDD adapter, I was able to go through a standard Windows XP installation onto the drive, however the drive would still not boot. I was able to pseudo-boot the 7k60 by adding a line to my boot.ini on my other drive, but this is a much less desirable setup.

Any help with the following would be great:
1. How do I get the 7k60 to boot on its own?
2. How can I use the 7k60 in the primary HDD bay.
3. How do I get the product recovery CD to recognize the drive. This problem may be resolved by solving 1 or 2.

Thanks

Sandeep

[sandeepgupta]

Wow! I guess I may eventually get to answer my own question

After further debugging, I've found the following:
1. Devices (hard disks or CD drive) can't be used to boot in the left ultrabay. Devices in the right ultrabay can boot. I've tested this with 2 hard drives and a CDRW/DVD drive.
2. If a hard drive is placed in the left ultrabay, it will not be recognized unless a drive is also placed in the primary hard drive slot.

IBM support still has not given a satisfactory answer about this behavior. They are as baffled as I am. Also, this behavior isn't specific to my machine. Another A31p 2654MU3 exhibits the same behavior.

Can anyone else with an A31p confirm this behavior on their machine? Maybe it has to do with the bios? I installed the latest last night. I need the "N" type bios. Maybe machine with the "G" bios work fine?

Thanks

Sandeep

[JHEM]

Sandeep,

Is this drive new or used? Did you get it from a reputable seller or was it purchased from eBay?

I've never seen the "failure to recognize" problem in any recent Thinkpad, from 600Es to my T40. I've just upgraded the HD in my A30p to a 7K60 with no problems whatsoever. In addition I have a 7K60 in 2 600Xs, a 770Z and my T40.

The only time I've seen a similar problem was when the unresponsive HD had been formatted in a desktop or another make of laptop and then put in a Thinkpad.

My A30p will boot to a HD in the right side Ultrabay Plus, but not to the same drive in the left bay. Probably because they share the same IDE channel and the right bay is the MAster and the left bay is the Slave.

Regards,

James

[sandeepgupta]

Ok.. I finally got this to work. This is what seems to be happening:
1. My primary drive slot does not recognize the drive. One IBM support tech claimed the laptop would not recognize 7200rpm drives. I don't know why that would be, but he seems to be right.

2. If the primary drive slot is empty, then the left ultrabay won't boot.

3. The right ultrabay will always boot.

So my final setup is:
7k60 in right ultrabay, 5k40 in primary HDD slot, and CD/DVD in left ultrabay.

Thanks

Sandeep

[tbessie]

That is very weird. One thing you didn't mention, did you set the jumpers
on the drive (if it has them, I can't remember if it does) so that it is master"
when you tried it in the primary drive location, and set any other drive
to be "slave"?

Check out: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/7k60/7k60jum.htm

You might also try "cable select" (which is often set when you buy the drive). But the drive in the primary slot shot be "master" and all others "slave", assuming you want to boot from your primary drive only.

- Tim

[ramcelroy]

For what its worth. A31p 2653-R6U XP SP2 with 7k60 in primary slot, original 5400 rpm in ultrabay left, multi-burner in ultrabay right. Works great and has for 4 months. I pop the old drive in and out for backups.