IBM T21 laptop hard drive problem

jem16

My friend has a problem with her hard drive which I'm trying to help solve.

On booting up her T21 displays a red box with the message "Hard drive not installed"

I've taken out my T21 hard drive and put in into hers and it works perfectly. Swapping hers into mine gives the same problem with the red box.

We took it back to the shop she got it from, who "supposedly" have tried 3 replacement drives(not new) but cannot install Windows XP onto it as it crashes. They asked if I would try it in mine.

I have just tried it and still get the same red box error - hard drive not installed. Any attempt to boot with the Windows CD just hangs at Starup is starting Windows. I suspect this is what the shop got.

I think they are trying to fob me off with faulty hard drives. Am I missing something?

gaming_guy

are the jumpers set correctly? (I cannot be sure if laptop hd's have jumpers like desktops)

startrekker

Ibm troubleshooting guide HERE Although i would suspect a faulty drive especially as yours works in the other machine and the other drive wont work in yours. I would take it back to the shop and tell them you have tested the drive in another machine and that it is faulty and you want a new drive

jem16

startrekker wrote:

Ibm troubleshooting guide HERE Although i would suspect a faulty drive especially as yours works in the other machine and the other drive wont work in yours. I would take it back to the shop and tell them you have tested the drive in another machine and that it is faulty and you want a new drive

That's what we did.

They gave us another hard drive - not new as the original broken one was 2 years old. He couldn't install Windows on it so asked if I would try in my laptop.

This "new" one still shows up as "hard drive not installed". I've checked in the BIOS as the guide above shows. The BIOS does not see the hard drive.

I think the replacement is faulty too as it gives the same message on both laptops. I think the shop is trying to fob us off and I'm tempted to spend £37 on a replacement new drive.

What do you think?

startrekker

Clearly faulty, would have thought they would supply a working one. It could still be under IBM warranty so check out HERE

jem16

I think they should at least be giving us one that works too.

However I am seriously beginning to doubt that they have a clue what they are doing with regards the technical side. I was told that they have tried 3 replacement hard drives and each time they try to setup XP onto it, it crashes.

I tried it with the replacement hard drive in my machine. First of all I get the "no hard drive installed" message. Ignoring this I let it boot via the Windows XP disk. It gets to the "setup is starting Windows" message and hangs. Strangely enough I suspect it would do this because there is not hard drive installed! I also suspect this is what happened in the shop too and he thinks the machine is faulty and not the hard drives.

We could go back and argue with them and may well do. However I'm just wondering if it's worth the hassle - but that's not my decision.

Unfortunately I don't think it will be under IBM's warranty as it was bought 2 years ago and was already a refurbished model.

startrekker

i know what you mean, the hassle. Well £37 for a new dive is not too bad, and gets the pc back to work, Good Luck

jem16

Just to update.

My friend preferred to spend £37 and get a new drive which comes with a 2 yr warranty than to spend time and money arguing with the other lot.

Got the drive yesterday, 5 minutes to change over the caddy and stuck it in the laptop. Recognised instantly and installed XP with no problems.

I shall leave it to my friend if she wants to argue with the other shop whom I'm beginning to think haven't a clue!