Laptop hard drive "rarely" detected

[satelliteA35]

Hey guys I have a strange problem I can't figure out with my Toshiba A35-s209 laptop. The hard drive is not detected at bootup and when i go into my bios settings at startup it says "none" in the hard drive section. With no hard drive it trys to network boot giving me that "PXE error: check cable" message. I've switched up the boot order, disabled the network boot option and tried every other boot option I can think of and no dice. I know its not a hardware problem because whenever I stick in the Xp install disc it'll detect the 60gb hard drive just fine showing the partitions and everything. I've used the recovery console and fixmbr & fixboot and still nothing.

Its really strange because whenever it doesn't detect my hard drive I usually just turn it off and turn it on repeatedly and after a couple of times it all of a sudden detects it and boots. So the only way to use my laptop is to have it on constant standby because if it resets then.... no hard drive=no boot. Which is what happened recently and now I'm stuck with a very expensive paperweight. Oh yea I've tried formatting , clean installed windows and updated to the latest bios. I'm thinking of zeroing out the hard drive.. dunno if that'll do anything. The drive isn't even conviently located in a hard drive bay like most laptops. I'm running out of options.

So in conclusion ..My failed efforts:
-updated bios
-reformatted & clean install
-changed boot sequence
-fixboot & fixmbr
-Disassembly (in the works)
-prayed

any help?

 

[N3051M]

you're hdd may be failing.. backup your data now and find out the make of your hdd (seagate, maxtor etc) then download their driver diagnostic utility.

writing 0's may/may not help, but if you're hdd is under warrenty send it back (make sure you've taken your stuff off first) and tell tehm to check teh hdd..

otherwise, you may do your own DIY hdd replacement if you feel up to it...