Thinkpad 600e Hard Drive Detection Issue

Don't ask how to hack password. (BIOS Passwords)
Post Reply
gutchak
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:10 pm

Hello. I'm new here and was wondering if there'd be anyone who could help me with a laptop hard drive detection problem.

Its like this: I got a ThinkPad 600E Type 2645-8AU which came with an IBM-Hitachi 10GB Hard Drive. Seeing that 10 gigs is a bit too small for me, I replaced it with a 60GB TravelStar Hard Drive.

About a month ago, the 60GB drive started "growing" bad blocks, which led to all sorts of data related problems. I ran all sorts of utilities, in the hope that it would mark the blocks, allowing the system to ignore them. Eventually, I gave in to the reality that it was just about time to get a new hard drive.

The thing is, its very difficult to find an IDE drive that's 60 gigs... all I could find was an 80 gig drive, Seagate. I've checked if this ThinkPad's BIOS version could take in 80 gigs, and found out that it could. So, I officially purchased the drive.

Now here's the thing... the unit just won't detect the 80 gig drive. I put in the old 10 gig drive... it wouldn't detect it as well. The original drive it came with.

Has anyone else out there gone through something like this? It perfectly works with the damaged 60 gig drive, but refuses to detect the original 10 gig and the new 80 gig drive. Is this a possible BIOS related issue?

Here are some more details on the drives:

10 GB - IBM TravelStar DCXA-210000 - 5v 500mA
60 GB - TravelStar IC25N060ATMR04-0 - 5v 1A
80 GB - Seagate ST980815A - 5v 500mA

I noticed that the 60GB has a 1A rating, while the 10GB and the 80GB have a 500mA rating. Could these be factors?

I've already Googled, checked out Hitachi, IBM and Seagate's respective websites. I didn't find anything that could help me sort this mess out.
edwin
The Hardware Archivist
Posts: 6286
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:11 pm
Location: Netherlands
Contact:

There's always the possibility the bios is detecting 64GB maximum and the original 10GB drive is officially dead. Other than that, have you got any other system to test the 80GB drive in? And when did you last replace the CMOS battery in the laptop? If that is low, the bios can do strange things with IDE detection etc...
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...
Post Reply