[kdog83]

I have an (legacy) HP Omnibook XE3-GF which I am trying to install new hard drive into but have been encountering some issues. The previous hard drive failed (10GB) and I replaced with a seagate 40gb IDE hard drive. The unit will not recognize HDD at the windows installation. If I dont use the windows install CD and boot to HDD, it simply states "No operating system found". System is a Celeron 800Mhz system designed for win XP (has sticker), now loaded with 512MB RAM, seagate momentus 40gb PATA brand new HDD.

I have confirmed that the new hard drive is not DOA by testing in another unit, I even went ahead and installed windows on that new hard drive on a diff. laptop and swapped back into the offending computer, same result. I hear the HDD spin so it is receiving power and getting warm. I believe it could be the bios not properly recognizing the new HDD but have no means to update the BIOS since there is no BIOS software available for this legacy device on HPs website. Further, it wont boot into windows on a 30GB or 40GB HDD with windows already installed so i couldnt use a windows based bios utility anyway..

Am I stuck at a dead end or is there anything else I can try. I know the unit can take large capacity HDD well above 30-40GB or is that incorrect? It doesnt seem like a motherboard defect or failure since there is no major beeps or issues... I would appreciate any help with troubleshooting.

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The XE3-GF, according to HP, doesn't talk to hard drives bigger than 32Gb.
However user posts suggest that it will talk to a 40Gb.
You may need to update the BIOS on it. You can get one from the HP website.

[Neil Jones]

The XE3-GF, according to HP, doesn't talk to hard drives bigger than 32Gb.
However user posts suggest that it will talk to a 40Gb.
You may need to update the BIOS on it. You can get one from the HP website.

[kdog83]

Thanks for the response. As mentioned earlier, I tested a 30GB with a confirmed working version of windows and it had the same response. Other posters have mentioned upgrading the BIOS on their units. As this is a legacy device, those links for upgraded BIOS appear on HP website but are not linked to a working file so i cant even get a new bios update if I wanted. It is possible that the upgraded BIOS allows HDDs with larger sizes however its a catch 22, I have no working low capacity HDD with windows with which to load the bios utility and flash the BIOS to the newer version. I need A) the BIOS path file and B) a way to install it within the windows environment. Still appreciate help.

[Neil Jones]

To cut a long story short, you don't need Windows.

Most legacy hardware requires the BIOS to be flashed from a DOS prompt and wouldn't be able to be flashed from Windows anyway.
Normally you can make a boot floppy from another computer, download what you want on the other computer and use this new disk to flash the BIOS, or you can use Nero to make a bootable CD and flash the HP that way.