Hard Drive Problem

[prx984]

hey guys, i was wondering if anyone might have any ideas on a small problem im having.

i have obtained a hard drive from a laptop that needed a new drive and its having problems being recognized.

i can use the drive in one of my external hdd caddies (the other 2 caddies i have dont recognize it) and it also works fine in a compaq armada 1700 laptop.

if i put the drive in my dell inspiron 7000, in the bios for main hard drive it says "none"

i have used FDISK with the /MBR command to no avail. it just doesnt work. iv looked all over the internet for any information and still nothing has stuck out at me.

the model is HDD2190, its a Toshiba out of a HP pavilion or Compaq presario, im not sure what model it was, but the sticker on the top says "Compaq Computer Corp." so it could be either company. (its a fairly new computer too, P4)

if i cant get it to work, ill just put it back in my external caddy and use it as storage (it still works for storage so thats fine and its quite reliable actually)

any help is appreciated, thanks for reading.

[ripken204]

very odd. afaik that drive is compatible with ur dell. if it doesnt show in the bios then nothing else u try will work. now what do u mean by the laptop needed a new drive? what happened to the old drive?

[prx984]

the original computer was a p4 hp or compaq (unsure) and the owner of the computer asked my dad to take a look at the computer because it would no longer boot. so we took a look at it, tried re-install the OS (xp pro) it copied the files to the drive, and after the first stage, just wouldnt but up into the gui part of the install. it just sat at the black screen before the boot logo.

we took the drive out and put in a new drive (20gb hitachi) and it worked. so we bought a new drive for the guy, and traded drives because the original one worked in my external caddy, and just asked for a few bucks because we couldn't use the drive in any of our laptops.

anyway, the drive works as storage, but it just wont boot. in the compaq armada 1700, it boots and it works fine. but in my dell laptop and my dads (latitude cpi) it just shows up as NONE in bios. im at a total loss with all of this.

is there anyway to do a thorough scan of the drive to see if theres anything damaged, or if theres a virus in it? (thats what i suspect as the person that original owned the computer has no computer knowledge)

cygnus

[ripken204]

hmm. do u have an adapter to hook it up to a desktop? if u can get it detected that way then u can format it.

[prx984]

iv formatted it multiple times and i have even switched between file systems (ntfs and fat32)

i have an external hdd caddy for 2.5 inch drives, but i dont have an internal drive connector. i have formatted it multiple times within the armada 1700 too.

im out of ideas on this. could there be a possibility that the drives boot sector or the volume information is just messed up? could a virus damage it beyond recovery or to the point that the drive just needs to be replaced?

Edited July 29, 2006 by Cygnus

[Shindo_Hikaru]

Well, their is some options, first is fdisk and the second is to conduct a low-level format, but only proceeded if you know the exact details of the drive.

[prx984]

what details would i need to know to procede with a low level format?

[Shindo_Hikaru]

Cyclinder heads, clusters, etc.

[dirtwarrior]

Another option besides LLF is to use a second party software to zero fill the HD which is much safer than LLF.

After zero fill then do a regular format to use HD.

[prx984]

thought so, where can i find that, would it be on the label on top, or would i have to search on the net?

edit : whats zero fill?

Edited July 29, 2006 by Cygnus

[dirtwarrior]

Its your HD do a LLF if you want

[Shindo_Hikaru]

A program utility from the manufactuer of the drive can ZERO your drive, their is alos other zero program out their, i have used a zero program for so long, i belive it has been 7+ years.

[prx984]

i just found out what zero fill means, i think im going to do that instead, it seems safer. im going use a linux boot cd and do it in my compaq. i found out how to do it here

@dirtwarrior, i didnt see your post before writing up my post. im going to do a zero fill instead. sorry if i sounded like i was ignoring you.

[prx984]

oh, question, does anyone know how to boot a Kubuntu install cd to a prompt? (i also have, ubuntu 5.1, xubuntu and frugalware .3)

[03GrandAmGT]

In case you didn't have it here's the specs on your Toshiba.

http://www.sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=...000659c00001554

Here's a free tool that supposedly works for low level format.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-D...rmat-Tool.shtml

jd