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Toshiba BIOS

jescab

My nephew brought me his Toshiba Satellite A15 because the hard drive went out. He got a new hard drive and I am swapped the old HDD for the new HDD but it will not recognize teh HDD. I tried to enter the BIOS but it will not let me enter the BIOS. When I start the laptop it stops at teh screen that says TOSHIBA and has some icons at the bottom that I used to just arrow over to get to the CD-rom or floppy drive but it will not let me use the arrows key or anything. It just beeps when I try to use the arrow keys or any other keys.

Any thoughts on how I can get this HDD formatted and Windows XP installed on it?

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Comments

Plantwiz

Is the battery in or out?

Take it out.

jescab

The battery is in but it is also plugged in.

I will remove the battery and report back.

jescab

Now I get an IDE #0 ERROR when it tries to install the Ghost image

How do I get around this error

jescab

Here are the specs - I am replacing the hdd with the same exact kind.

laptop - toshiba satellite a15
hdd = MK4021GAS
old HDD2182 B ZE01 T

the new hdd = HDD2182 B ZE01 S

Plantwiz

jescab wrote:

Now I get an IDE #0 ERROR when it tries to install the Ghost image

How do I get around this error

ahhh... I didn't get that you had an imaged drive you were trying to stick in.

I understood your post as trying to format and install only.

Any thoughts on how I can get this HDD formatted and Windows XP installed on it?

What are your drive options?
Can you boot from USB?

jescab

I have an imaged from toshiba that I tried - i will try the XP cd and see what happens.

It will not let me enter the BIOS to change it to boot from the cd.

jescab

It does not recognize the hdd. I tried the XP cd and after i hit the first enter it says set up did not find any hard disk drives installed.

Hmmmm

Plantwiz

How did you prep the drive prior to the image? And where did you set the drive to do this image?

Just ran into something similar and my problem (on a Dell) was resolved by removing the battery.

I've also had drives not recognized unless FDISK was properly done...making me wonder how you imaged the drive (i.e. external from the notebook).

RussS

Toshiba BIOS instructions ...

http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/faq.jsp?service=UK&FID=0000000401

I am however of the opinion that your ghost image may be corrupted and the only way to fix is a full reinstall of the OS. Have you tried to view the files on the image with Ghost Explorer?

TheShadow

Notebook drives normally come un-partitioned. Can't restore an image until you do that. You need a XP disk, or winprep or partition magic. Depending on the imaging method you may even have to format it.

Plantwiz

TheShadow wrote:

Notebook drives normally come un-partitioned. Can't restore an image until you do that. You need a XP disk, or winprep or partition magic. Depending on the imaging method you may even have to format it.

Definately the drive needs to be formated.

jescab

When I try to format and install XP using the XP cd it tells me there is no disk drive installed.

The image was the recovery image that toshiba sent along with the laptop.

I am going to forget about using the image. I am using the XP CD now and it still doesn't work.

TheShadow

so does CMOS setup recognize that the drive is there? If so it needs to be partitioned. XP Pro should handle it, not sure about XP home.

jescab

Since neither the old or teh new hdd are showing up as recognized in the BIOS I am going to say this is an IDE controller problem.

How difficult would it be for me to replace the IDE controller? I have never done this on a laptop before.

jescab

Thanks for the help gentlemen!

TheShadow

oops Toshiba is normally embeded. sometimes there is a mylar cable that goes to the drive connector. The end on the motherboard is a pressure fit and it sometimes can get cocked at an angle that shorts pins during a remove/replace. Take a break, then carefully look at the assembly.

jescab

Could this be a firmware issue since I didn't buy the new hdd from toshiba? Is so how would I fix this problem since it will not recognize the drive at all so I can't do anything to it.

Does anyone have a link with instructions on removing the chasis so I can make sure the IDE controller is seated correctly?

RussS

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/ToshibaA15/SatelliteA15_laptop_disassembly_1.htm

I am still of the opinion that your machine needs to see the drive in the BIOS first.

TheShadow

I agree with RussS. While I haven't looked at his link yet I think you will find that toshiba laptops are not modular and don have much to plug in except the drives and memory. There should be no IDE controller to reseat.

jescab

Yes I agree too - but it will not see the old or the new drive.

Any idea of why it will not see the hdd. My only guess is that the hdd does not have the proper firmware or the controller.

Help - Help

jescab

I would say it was a faulty drive but the BIOS doesn't pick up the old hdd either.

Plantwiz

RussS wrote:

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/ToshibaA15/SatelliteA15_laptop_disassembly_1.htm

I am still of the opinion that your machine needs to see the drive in the BIOS first.

I found this link last night as well.

Jescab, are you certain the drive works? And I haven't seen an answer regarding how you prepared this drive for use. Could you please explain what steps you took from noticing the bad drive through where we are...just as there seems to be a lot of things you have 'tried', but I'm not clear on what all has been done to reach the current point.

Also, if the first drive was bad...how were you able to retrieve the image from the drive?

Thanks

BTW - I'm not convinced at this point it is your controller....unless of course the laptop was dropped or took an electrical hit in which case you may have a whole lot more going on.

jescab

Hi Plant - I bought the laptop from the store and the image was in the packet of documentation that came along with it. The image came from Toshiba. I was going to use the image but decided to install a fresh stand alone copy of XP.

The old hard drive was making all kinds of noises and then stopped booting. I bought a new hdd off the web. I installed the new hdd, i then put the XP cd in the cd-rom and booted to the cd-rom. It says hit enter install and I hit enter then it says no hard disk installed.

It was not dropped or struck by lightning.

I am trying to install a fresh cd copy of XP so I put the xp cd in the cd drive and restart teh laptop booting to teh cd drive.

JDMurray

How about the hard drive's cable? It is possible that when you removed the original hard drive the flat IDE cable was slightly pulled from the connector on the motherboard? Can you easily check the cable connection and reseat it?

Also, do you have a third hard drive that you can try? You can try reflashing the BIOS, but that's not likely to fix this problem.

Silver Bullet

I ran into a problem like this sometime ago but with a different model Toshiba. I agree with Russ in that the bios needs to see the drive before you will have any luck installing an OS on it.

My solution was resetting the bios by disconnectioning/reconnecting the RTC battery. You may be able to resolve it by reflashing the BIOS as jdmurry suggested.

Like I said, this was on a different model toshiba but same problem.....don't remember what model it was though.

If your unsure of where the RTC battery is then I am sure that the disassembly link Russ provided should show you where it is.

EDIT:----can't spell---

jescab

Sorry, no third drive. I will check the cable when I tear it apart. Thanks.

RussS

jescab As mentioned - the hard drive will have no partition when new so you will not be able to install the OS until there is a partition created. There are many ways to do this but the easiest is to boot to a floppy or boot CD and run FDISK and create a new partition.
The Tosh A15 does not have an IDE cable from memory - the connector is hard wired to the motherboard.

http://www.cmsproducts.com/pdf/driveremoval/Toshiba/Satellite A10 and A15.pdf

jescab

The hdd did not have a cable. It went right into a socket.

JDMurray

jescab wrote:

The hdd did not have a cable. It went right into a socket.

Well, reflashing the BIOS would only take a minute. We could than at least rule that out as a possible solution.

Silver Bullet

Did you disconnect/reconnect the RTC battery?