T42 Hard Drive Upgrade Problems - Please Help *PIC*

[jamays]

Here's what I have...

I work for a Corporation who has a customized Windows XP load which is installed by running a boot CD and then imaging the computer from an external hard drive attached to another computer on the network.

I recently ordered a hard drive upgrade for a T42 user since his standard 40GIG HD wasn't adequate. What CDW recommended was a Western Digital WD1600BEVE.

The drive fits in the computer, I ran the load setup and imaged the hard drive with our corporate load. But when the computer reboots to start windows for the first time, I get a never-ending blinking cursor in the upper left hand of the screen.

After much reading on this forum, am I correct to assume that this is caused by a missing hidden partition on the WD drive? And am I also correct to assume that I will need to use software to copy the partitions from the current HDD to the new HDD (including said hidden partition)?

Any help and insight would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Harryc]

I must be missing the point as to why you'd want a recovery partition on a corporate machine with a special build on it. As far as the boot problem, it's hard to say. Have you run diagnostics from WD on the new drive? It could be as simple as rewriting the MBR using the XP recovery console and running fdisk /mbr. There is also a diskette from IBM support that fixes the mbr for the recovery partition specifically.

[Stan]

Does the customised load contain T42 specific drivers and software?

The drive in question, Western Digital WD1600BEVE, is a good replacement unit for the original IBM 40Gb unit. I'm using the same drive in my T42.

[cmarti]

I think you need to take a look at the boot order in the BIOS.

Make the HD the first option at boot.

[jamays]

Okie dokie. Ran the WD utility via a floppy disk (shoo, that was hard to find!) all to no avail.

The load is specific to the Laptop Model. It never actually gets to the point of loading Windows. Right after the BIOS splash screen, it blinks the cursor.

I've changed the boot order and tried an array of configurations there.

I can put the old drive back in and it boots find, and has the exact same Windows Load as the new WD drive. But it just won't boot from the new drive.

Is it missing a hidden partition?

I've also tried the IBM disk that fixes the MBR.

This is the weirdest thing I've come across in a while...

It's worth noting that I do not have the IBM restore disks. I don't know if that's essential in loading something onto the hard drive before Windows ever loads. That's what I was hoping you guys could tell me.

Thanks!

[jamays]

OK, I lied. The WD utility I ran actually did work. Thanks to everyone for their help!

[Brad]

Glad to hear your new hard drive is running now.

Which WD utility did you use and how did you use it? The problem you describe has happened to me before and I haven't found a reliable solution.

Brad

[jamays]

I'm 99% sure it was the Dlgsetup11_dos.exe from http://support.wdc.com/download/index.a ... 14&swid=23 but I tried so many different things that I can't be sure.

What I did was used the said utility to format and partition the drive, then used the same utility to create/correct/whatever the MBR.

After that, I initiated the load, and the computer booted fine as it was supposed to. I assume that the drive came out of the factory with no pre-installed MBR and because I was attempting to put a customized corporate XP load onto the drive, which assumes an active MBR is already present, it didn't know how to boot.


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[Brad]

Thanks!

Brad