Broken HDD on laptop?

[HA]

Hello. I have a laptop with the following spec:

IBM Thinkpad 390E
Celeron Processor, 366 MHz

It was running Windows 2000. I switched it on after months, perhaps even a year (time flies!) And it was slow. But it was slow anyway and I had been meaning to downgrade to Windows 98. Seeing as it was slow I thought I would downgrade to Windows 98 sooner rather than later.

I wiped the hard drive using the free version of Kill Disk (www.killdisk.com). I couldn't install Windows 98 because the hard drive was not FAT 32. I booted using a Windows 98 boot disk in order to set the partitions with fdisk. This must have taken about eight hours. When I came to format the hard drive the computer said

Format not supported on drive C:
Format terminated.

So I thought I would check if the partitions are in place with fdisk but it said:

No fixed disks present

My question is whether the hard drive is broken and beyond repair or whether it is just that the computer is not recognising it. There is nothing rattling inside so it is not loose. If the computer is repairable I would appreciate some guidance about how I can do it.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[patio]

If it sat that long try this...
Remove the hold down panel for the drive.
Carefully remove the drive and clean the contacts with a QTip and rubbing alcohol...allow some drying time, more is better.
Do the same for the battery and its contacts as well ( since you have the alcohol handy )
Replace the drive, power up and watch the BIOS screen to see if the hard drive is detected...if so you should be good to go.
If not check the manual and see what's involved in replacing the CMOS battery which may also have gone dead.

You may have to run FDisk and format over again as well.

[HA]

Thanks for your help patio. I have been unable to respond until now.

I changed the clock battery and the BIOS clock is now keeping the time. I could run FDISK but I was not ready to go through with everything so I left it till later. But later the HDD was not recognised in KILLDISK and I could not run FDISK because no fixed disks were recognised.

I removed the HDD but I could not clean the contacts because they were concealed, rather like the contacts in the socket of a parallel cable. I gave a blow instead. It did not make any difference. The hard disk is still not recognised.

Any other suggestions?

By the way, the hard disk makes a strange noise and I have recorded it. The link to the audio file is as follows:
www.ha.talktalk.net/IBM390E_hdd.WMA

[patio]

That is the click of Death as it's commonly referred to...the read-write heads are constantly searching for the park spot to get started from and are having no luck.

The drive is dead.

We have on occasion held Memorial services for failing hardware here if needed.
Let us know...

[quaxo]

Ewww... one of the worst sounds you can get from a computer. Patio is right, that drive has seen the end of it's days.

I just did some searching, your hard drive can be replaced, but something about that particular model of laptop only supports up to 8GB hard drives. I'm not even sure you can get one that small anymore.

That might be inaccurate information though. I'd check with IBM (if they'll help you at this point) and see.

[HA]

thanks, i appreciate it. i didn't even get much use out of that laptop...it was just sitting around...and when i needed it....

moments silence 

what could have been the cause? age? or would it have had anything to do with the CMOS battery running out?

[patio]

Nope . The battery would'nt cause this.
Age
Lack of use
Being stored for a lengthy period of time.

A number of things.

Services will be at Midnight tonite E.S.T.
In lieu of flowers the family requests sending any un-used hardware to the decedents Estate....