Toshiba Satellite 2805-s302, 750mhz, 384mb ram

My old Hard Drive is a 20G running windows ME. It still works but is making noise and ready to go. I got a new Toshiba 4025GAS 40G and put it in and started to load Windows but it stops and says that I don’t have a hard drive. I went into the BIOS and it isn’t showing up there either, so I took it out and ran some tests on it with my desktop using an adapter. All the tests say the hard drive is fine.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Has it been prepped, partitioned and formatted?

It may also need some tweaks to allow it to see more than 37Gigs with 9x/ME if I remember the experience with my wife's PC correctly.

My understanding is that the Windows installation cd formats and partitions the drive as necessary. Is that not true? Wouldn't it at least be recognized by the BIOS?

As to the 37GB limit I think it would still show up just as a smaller drive.

Thanks for the ideas, more are welcome.

Wouldn't it at least be recognized by the BIOS?
One would expect so - which means one must ask if not just it but that both HDDs are positioned and jumpered correctly - and the cables (data and power) and their connections are definitely OK. You could try the simplest arrangement of just attaching it in place of the existing drive - jumpered as master (or master with no slave on some makes) - and see if you can get it recognised on the BIOS with an autodetect setting.

If the first drive is failing it can have knock-on effects on a second attached drive.

SIMPLE RULES FOR UPGRADING TO A NEW HARD DRIVE


Download the latest hard drive diagnostic/installation software from the HDD manufacturer's web site.
Install the software or create a bootable floppy or CD
Turn the system off
Open the case
Remove the ribbon cable and the power cable from the master device on the secondary IDE cable. This is usually the CD-ROM
Attach the cables from the previous step into the new hard drive.
Insert boot floppy into drive and boot system or boot into Windows if you installed the software on the old hard drive.
Using manufacturers software, partition and format drive and the transfer the contents of the old drive to the new drive. Much faster, more reliable and easier to use than native Windows tools. It will also help you overcome any bios limitations your motherboard has limiting hard drive size.
Turn system off
Unattach cables from new drive and re-attach them to the CD-ROM
Replace old hard drive with new hard drive
Close the case
Re-boot
Enjoy :D


This obviates the need to change jumpers and eliminates any problems with Windows FDISK and format.

If the system cannot recognize the drive, you may have a 40 wire connector and may need to upgrade the drive cable. Consult the manufacturers web site for details.

If you go with Classic's routines but still cant get it recognised in the BIOS on the secondary IDE do try it on its own on the primary IDE. However you decide to troubleshoot you will make no progress until you get the drive detected in the BIOS.

Not necessarily so Paul, my understanding from WD and Maxtor tech support is their software can read the drive across the cable regardless of the BIOS. If there is a Bios limitation their drive overlay software will overcome it.

All I said was "if its not recognised on the secondary" (not that it wont be dealt with there) to then try the primary.

It may in any case be the situation that only the new drive is being attached (the failing one having been wisely removed pro tem at least); that is not totally clear from this post.

BIOS limitations may well prevent some drives from being detected but in my own experience they are generally recognised but then translate the geometry incorrectly. What utility software can do is to access the HPA; the area on the HDD that is normally inaccessible.

Finally, no software will read across a cable that is faulty or has bad connections or an inadequate power supply or is wrongly jumpered.

Thanks for the help but the advice your giving me is for a tower (desktop). I tested the Hard drive in my desktop and it works fine (using an Ide adapter). There are no jumpers set on my previous Hard drive and I don't have one on my new one.

Still lost...

Thanks for the help but the advice your giving me is for a tower (desktop). I tested the Hard drive in my desktop and it works fine (using an Ide adapter). There are no jumpers set on my previous Hard drive and I don't have one on my new one.
Still lost...

Are you installing a new drive in a laptop?

If not, my steps will work with any Windows PC. No Jumper changing required.

What steps are you lost at? How many were you able to accomplish?

If it is a bios limitation issue:

Put the laptop HDD in your tower. Fdisk and make 2 partitions. Format them and then put the drive in the laptop. See if problem persists.

originally posted by oldschoolripper
Toshiba Satellite 2805-s302...
Sounds like a laptop to me... ;)

I don't think any of us picked up on the laptop point. Sorry for my own failing.

Would be very surprised if this is a BIOS limitation since with the exception of Win95's 32 GB limit and a very few Older Award Bios with a 33.8 GB limit there are really no barriers between 8.4 and 137 GB; and the original in this case was a 20 GB drive.

Thus if the old drive was or is still recognised in the BIOS then this one should be seen there too. If not then I would say that either the connector is damaged/not seating properly or the new drive is faulty; - the former being more llikely since the drive could be accessed and checked on an adapter on a desktop.

Sorry guys, I guess I could have been more clear that we were talking laptop. Anyways, still no luck. I tried putting another working hard drive that already had an operating system installed and the laptop wouldn't detect that either.

It did sound like a physical hardware/wiring issue but, like just mentioned, why would the old one work and not the new one or the other one I just tried? Does Toshiba have some kind of stupid proprietary issues with their laptops that you can't even upgrade the hard drive with another Toshiba hard drive?

Does Toshiba have some kind of stupid proprietary issues
You might need to ask them. BTW does the original drive show in the BIOS? And have you carefully compared the socket on both drives to see if the pin arrangements at least look similar?

I called Toshiba and they said that there were some of their older models that had trouble with Hard drives other than the original. Which ones? He didn't know. Why? He didn't know. Is there a solution? He didn't know, and neither do I!

My laptop is listed as compatible with many different hard drives that are being sold.

Yes, my original drive shows up in the BIOS. The pin arrangement on the new and old drive are identical.

Can it be that once that drive goes that's it? I expect more from Toshiba. There must be some kind of solution out there...

Although I have been sceptical perhaps this could be a BIOS barrier and that is why there was a mention from Toshiba regarding "some of their older models". Unless you can find a direct reference somewhere only trial and error with a smaller drive would help to answer that one.

Clearing the cmos by removing the cmos battery overnight could be worth a try but it involves opening up a laptop which is often not straightforward. On a desktop one might have tried changing the recognition settings in the BIOS setup to auto but I doubt such an option is open to you.

I vaguely remember reading about a problem with a certain make of Laptop, can't remember which.
It had to have the HDD jumpered as "Cable Select".
Probably a false trail, but worth a mention?

The original drive was a 20GB and I tried a 6GB with ME installed to no avail so I doubt it is a size limitation issue. You are right Paul, the recognition settings are not available.

I have already tried putting a jumper on as slave, master, and CS. Again no luck.

I'd rather not have to physically remove the CMOS battery, although I will try that once the original Hard Drive actually fails. I just thought that I would be a responsible computer user and do the "preventative maintenance" and change it out before that time to save any potential headaches of losing valuable data.

If it wont recognise a 6gig drive then it does sound as if you must either use a prorietary 20gig Hitachi or clear the cmos to let it redetect a new/different HDD (since there seems to be no way of manually changing things in the BIOS setup). Is there a reset defaults option that could be worth a shot.