Computer Hope

Hardware => Hardware => Topic started by: mikey821 on January 16, 2008, 10:54:33 AM

Title: bios not seeing new hard drive on laptop
Post by: mikey821 on January 16, 2008, 10:54:33 AM

Hello Folks,    I have a toshiba satellite m35x it wasgiven to me because
someone was gonna toss it I tried to set up windows(full version)XP,but the computer says that no hard drive was detected. Fine so I went out
and bought a new hard drive installed everything went ok. and still the
bios said that there are no hard drives installed. did my bios chip die?
oh yeah had to take computer apart to clear bios password.it went back together just fine but same result Help ???

Title: Re: bios not seeing new hard drive on laptop
Post by: Deerpark on January 16, 2008, 11:31:07 AM

Its not a SATA hard drive is it?

Title: Re: bios not seeing new hard drive on laptop
Post by: patio on January 16, 2008, 12:41:29 PM

Some new hard drives need to be formatted as they are not at the factory...but you should run auto-detect in the BIOS setup utility first to make sure it's not the BIOS that's not detecting it...

Title: Re: bios not seeing new hard drive on laptop
Post by: mikey821 on January 17, 2008, 07:46:58 AM

thanks for the reply guys, no its not a sata drive and I'll try the auto detect
if there is one in the bios
                                        Thanks again

Title: Re: bios not seeing new hard drive on laptop
Post by: dahlarbear on January 17, 2008, 11:24:14 AM

1.  Hard Drive.  What is the make, model number, and capacity of the hard drive?  Are there IDE jumpers on the drive that need to be set (master, slave, single, cable select)?

2.  Laptop Age.  Any estimate as to how old that Toshiba laptop model is (or date of BIOS)?

Title: Re: bios not seeing new hard drive on laptop
Post by: patio on January 17, 2008, 01:39:33 PM

It's pretty rare that you see jumpers on a laptop HDD...

Title: Re: bios not seeing new hard drive on laptop
Post by: dahlarbear on January 17, 2008, 02:35:41 PM

Yeah...  OK...  I wondered about sticking my neck out...  Should have waited for the make and model number (and then do some research).  Sigh...

Title: Re: bios not seeing new hard drive on laptop
Post by: DaveLembke on January 17, 2008, 04:17:58 PM

You shouldn't have to set any jumpers, you should be able to install the drive and have the BIOS find it unless it has a blown controller.

Dave

Title: Re: bios not seeing new hard drive on laptop
Post by: mikey821 on January 18, 2008, 10:18:13 AM

this laptop is nuts. I go to the bios but it skips over hdd detection. cant access??the drive is a western digital 80gb bought a few days ago.no jumpers were on the old drive it was an 40gig hitachi. the bios didnt
recognize it either. Hitachi would'nt make hdd inaccessable in the bios
would they?oh yeah phoenix bios version 4.0 release 6.0 I think the machine was built in 2004. I took the thing apart to reset the cmos because
someone password protected the bios. Arrrfgh I don't have the original setup program for this that might be the whole problem right?

Title: Re: bios not seeing new hard drive on laptop
Post by: patio on January 18, 2008, 10:26:42 AM

Well it's either that or the MBoard/BIOS won't support a drive over 40G...
To get that BIOS repaired you will probably have to take it to a service center where they will install the correct EEPROM.

This is one of the reasons we rarely suggest BIOS flashes here...