jsailorca2002

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Oct 20, 2007
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I am contemplating on buying a thinkpad t43 laptop but the laptop has a
problem seeing a hard drive when u put in the primary hard drive bay. Any idea
whether or not this is a motherboard issue (i.e.: connectors) Or something
more serious. The laptop boots to BIOS.
Furthermore, the DVD/CD bay of this laptop can be converted into a secondary bay
for a hard drive. How likely is it that the laptop would not see the secondary
hard drive if somehow the second bay and the first bay is using the same control?
Or the two drive bays can be booted independently.
Thank you.
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
If you are trying to install a brand new empty HDD unit in a machine, the BIOS certainly should be able to detect it and show the hardware device. In a few cases the port to which it is connected MIGHT not be Enabled and that needs a small change in BIOS Setup, but that is not common. Once it is recognized you will want to set the Boot Priority Sequence elsewhere in BIOS. Save and Exit BIOS Setup, and you still will NOT be able to boot up and "see" the hard drive. There is no Operating system installed yet. The installation is the next step.

Now, if that is NOT your situation - if your hard drive is supposed to have an OS already installed to boot from, and the machine cannot do that, that's a different problem. You start by looking in the BIOS Setup screen to ensure the Port is Enabled and the HDD is recognized. If not, you have a hardware problem to diagnose - could be the HDD, its connector, its power supply, any cables involved, etc. If it IS recognized, check the Boot Priority Sequence to be sure it is set to use the HDD to boot from. Usually you set this to try the optical drive unit first and then the HDD second.
 

jsailorca2002

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Oct 20, 2007
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18,510


Thanks for the response. Very helpful.