HDD not being found on Toshiba laptop

[Zetto52SD]

I'm working on repairing a laptop a customer gave to my shop and he says the problem was that the battery was not holding charge. But that was a small problem compared to the other ones. It had not RAM whatsoever and once i replaced the RAM (used Samsung 256MB DDR @ 133MHz and a IBM module of the same specs) it goes to the boot screen but it does not recognize the HDD in the laptop. The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite A15-S127. Any suggestions as to what might be the problem? I'll update this question once i run a diagnostic on the HDD later today in the shop.

 

[amd4lif3]

plug the hdd into a pc format it if not reccogniced in my computer go on search then type Disk Management right click on your drive and format it

 

[Zetto52SD]

plug the hdd into a pc format it if not reccogniced in my computer go on search then type Disk Management right click on your drive and format it

Unfortunately, it is a customer's laptop, so I can't format it without the customer's approval/consent. Could it be a problem with the connector? I took out the HDD from laptop on Monday and it looked almost perfect, but I didn't test it. I can't see in the bay very well but I will check that today if I can. I'll keep y'all updated though.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey Zetto52SD. It sounds like there might be a problem with the connections, try different cables or it might be the HDD itself. Are you sure everything's OK with the motherboard, because it sounds like a lot of problems with different components?
Will be waiting for further info after the diagnostic test.

 

[Zetto52SD]

Hey Zetto52SD. It sounds like there might be a problem with the connections, try different cables or it might be the HDD itself. Are you sure everything's OK with the motherboard, because it sounds like a lot of problems with different components?
Will be waiting for further info after the diagnostic test.

Didn't have time to check the motherboard Monday. Planning on doing that today. Do you know anything about the laptop's motherboard?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Not really, it was just a thought, that's why I suggested to check it out if nothing else turns out to be the reason for these problems. Otherwise about the drive it's probably either the connection or the drive itself, but I guess you'll be able to tell that after you try it with another computer or run the diagnostic test.

 

[mouse24]

What hdd is it and check if its able to be seen on any other PC.

 

[Zetto52SD]

What hdd is it and check if its able to be seen on any other PC.

It's a 40GB Toshiba 2.5". There's definitely a problem with it, as when it attempted to boot, an error message came up saying "IDE #0 Error". I looked it up and IDE #0 is generally the HDD. It says it could be a problem with the connectors or pins, but the pins on the HDD are all straight. I'll take off the laptop case tomorrow and check the connector cables.

 

[Zetto52SD]

Also, in the BIOS, it says a built-in HDD is "not used".

 

[mouse24]

Yeah considering the age of the drive and the overall bad shape of the laptop in general I'd say its pretty dead.

 

[Zetto52SD]

Would it even be worth it to run the diagnostic during boot up? Especially seeing as it won't even recognize the disk. My shop doesn't have any converters from the right IDE to SATA or USB. It just doesn't seem to fit in the connector when I tried to use a converter on it.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Nope I guess if you are not able to connect the drive to another computer, there's no point in running any kind of diagnostic software. But you could try connecting it if you get an IDE to USB converter that you were talking about, or an exterlan enclosure that supports IDE drives.
But if the drive is that old, it might have failed already... unfortunately there's no way to tell that for sure if you don't try it with another computer either externally or internally.

 

[Zetto52SD]

Nope I guess if you are not able to connect the drive to another computer, there's no point in running any kind of diagnostic software. But you could try connecting it if you get an IDE to USB converter that you were talking about, or an exterlan enclosure that supports IDE drives.
But if the drive is that old, it might have failed already... unfortunately there's no way to tell that for sure if you don't try it with another computer either externally or internally.

The odd things is, I have access to IDE to USB devices, but the HDD pins don't seem to fit in the connectors for the IDE portion of the IDE to USB. The HDD seems to be too wide for the IDE connectors on the IDE to USB devices.

 

[mouse24]

Nope I guess if you are not able to connect the drive to another computer, there's no point in running any kind of diagnostic software. But you could try connecting it if you get an IDE to USB converter that you were talking about, or an exterlan enclosure that supports IDE drives.
But if the drive is that old, it might have failed already... unfortunately there's no way to tell that for sure if you don't try it with another computer either externally or internally.

The odd things is, I have access to IDE to USB devices, but the HDD pins don't seem to fit in the connectors for the IDE portion of the IDE to USB. The HDD seems to be too wide for the IDE connectors on the IDE to USB devices.

Toshiba does some weird things with there connectors sometimes. Might want to check if its not something proprietary. If its a 1.8" IDE toshiba drive its almost certainly one of there proprietary formats.

 

[Zetto52SD]

Nope I guess if you are not able to connect the drive to another computer, there's no point in running any kind of diagnostic software. But you could try connecting it if you get an IDE to USB converter that you were talking about, or an exterlan enclosure that supports IDE drives.
But if the drive is that old, it might have failed already... unfortunately there's no way to tell that for sure if you don't try it with another computer either externally or internally.

The odd things is, I have access to IDE to USB devices, but the HDD pins don't seem to fit in the connectors for the IDE portion of the IDE to USB. The HDD seems to be too wide for the IDE connectors on the IDE to USB devices.

Toshiba does some weird things with there connectors sometimes. Might want to check if its not something proprietary. If its a 1.8" IDE toshiba drive its almost certainly one of there proprietary formats.

Turns out the damned thing is a 44-pin IDE, not 40-pin, which is what was causing me problems. I also tried using a bootable diagnostic test, but it didn't boot to the diagnostic, so I'm probably just going to get a new HDD for the customer. I considered buying a 44-pin female IDE to SATA but I wouldn't want the customer to pay for that as part of his service, and I therefore wouldn't have any way to make money off the purchase or make money back atleast, and then I don't know when I would use it again. Unless you guys think I should?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well that's all up to you, but I seriously doubt that you will come across many IDE drives especially 44-pin ones.

 

[mouse24]

44pin? You're in luck, most laptop drives are 44pin. Extra 4 pins are for either power or the slave/master I can't quite remember, been a while since I have used a laptop IDE drive.

Heres a 20 dollar drive that ought to slot right in there. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA10V1ZW7887

 

[Zetto52SD]

44pin? You're in luck, most laptop drives are 44pin. Extra 4 pins are for either power or the slave/master I can't quite remember, been a while since I have used a laptop IDE drive.

Heres a 20 dollar drive that ought to slot right in there. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA10V1ZW7887

Well, thank ya. And the manual said it's for slave/master.