ThinkPad 600E Hard Drive Mystery/Problem

[gutchak]

---

Hello. I'm relatively new here and was wondering if there'd be anyone who could help me with a laptop hard drive 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. Uh... para klaro... this ThinkPad is old. As in Pentium II kinda old.

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.

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. I've got a feeling this has something to do with the laptop's inability to detect the 10GB and the 80GB drives. The annoying thing is I know someone who has the same rig as I, and has managed to run a 120GB Hitachi drive in his unit, using a disk manager utility. AND and voltage rating sa drive is 5v 1A still. The thing is, this unit originally came with the 10GB drive which as a voltage rating of 5v 500mA... ?

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...

If anyone out there knows whats up with this unit... HELP PLEASE!!! Right now, i'm using the ThinkPad, defective 60GB drive installed, while the 80GB drive's connected via external enclosure through a USB hub.

The 60GB regularly develops bad blocks, and i have to run windows xp's chkdisk utility everytime i boot up. Plus I loose a lot of files i save in the 60GB drive, so i bring the 80GB drive everywhere... hassle kaayo, knowing that I've got a fully functional 80GB drive which I can't install into the laptop unit itself...

TABANG!!!

[AMD_infinium05]

have you checked out IBM for any incompatibility issue(s)?

[pangitko79]

have you tried, removing the battery pack, power drain the unit, resetting the bios?

check also the condition of your battery pack if its still capable of providing clean and sufficient energy to power up your unit

consider also the heat that is building up on your hard drive and its sorounding areas which causes instability and probably lost of data

[carmicael]

considering old na kaayo imong laptop, and pentium ii days didn't have the luxury of having a modest supply of 80GB HDD's, you should check revisions for your laptop's bios. or maybe check the compatibility issues at IBM's website.

[gutchak]

Wow... replies... he he he...

Yes, i've already looked into other TBM Thinkpad Forums, and yes, my Thinkpad's current BIOS version can support the 80 gig drive.

I'll try using the battery "power drain" solution posted. Considering that this is pretty much a voltage related problem, it just may be the key in solving this issue.