Toshiba A-65 hd replacement

[jjcs87]

Hi Guys,
The harddrive in my toshiba sat a65 was going out so I purchased a replacement. Stuck the new drive in and booted up but the bios is not seeing it. My xp disk was in the drive however and started setup. The first time, it did not see it either, rebooted, when back to bios, tried to detect, nothing, restarted setup and it found the device. partioned, formated, and files copied, but then after reboot it just goes back to setup since the bios cannot see the drive. any ideas?

any help is great appreciated. thanks
john

 

[raybay]

Did you buy an OEM drive, wrapped in thick plastic, but no box?
If so, use the manufacturers downloads to setup the drive.
Otherwise, check your cables and pins carefully, as they have a tendency to pull out of connectors, or pins get bent.
Many drives just get damaged from the lateral impact from shipment. The manufacturer will always replace them, usually before you send the old drive back... then bill you if they don't receive the bad drive.

 

[jjcs87]

actually, I tried going the cheaper route and got one offiline but it was guaranteed not doa so I can always return if there is a problem but I wanted to check and make sure there was nothing wrong on my end first. the guys that sent it, did not wrap very well so that is a possibility for damage but it is be seeing by setup from xp and just not bios, that is the weird thing. any other suggestions before I try sending back? could there be something with the mobo adapber from hd?

 

[raybay]

"...but it is be seeing by setup from xp and just not bios, that is the weird thing..."
Could you explain the above in more detail.

What brand is the drive. If it is a Toshiba, there are no manuifacturer drive setup files online. But all other companies do provide drive fitness tests and setup software that will quickly test for the drive.
Be sure to remove and reseat your drive cable, and assure that no pins are bent. Also assure that the jumpers are properly set for "Master" If the jumpers are not set, or are set to slave or cable select, you computer may have no way to "see" it.

 

[jjcs87]

it is toshiba... there are no bent pins or anything but I am not sure about the drives jumper settings. there are no jumper pins attached so I am uncertain there. laptop hard drives are so much smaller and a bit more different than ide. anyways, everything looks the same as the old drive!

 

[raybay]

It is worth the time to look at the drive at
http://www.toshiba.com/tai/support/support_cons.jsp
Then look in the second column from the left for Hard Disckm Drives & Optical Drives, for the heading, Jumper Settings
Generally, the Toshiba laptop hard drives have no jumpers for Master.
They also have an alternate which is a jumper across the lower row from D to B
Any other settings could cause your problem.
Otherwise you still have some things to try. Among them is an inquiry to Toshiba, perhaps the best of the laptop drive manufacturers with the lowest failure rate, and the vendor who sold it to you.

 

[jjcs87]

thanks just went and bought another hd and it works fine so who knows but got it to work... thanks all