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Netbook not seeing hard drive


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#1
trfatman

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Working with a Toshiba NB205-N210 running Windows XP Home. AVG gave a warning about a virus detection. It ran a scan and then said it needed to reboot. Upon reboot it just goes to a blinking cursor. I checked BIOS, and it is still recognizing the hard drive. I removed the hard drive and connected it to another computer which recognized it. I then put the hard drive back into the netbook and tried a system recovery from the hidden partition. When I press "0" while starting the netbook it gives a primary boot screen and then just a blinking cursor. I checked the partitions using Acronis and the first time it said there was no hard drive. The second and third time it found the hard drive and showed both the main and hidden partition. It listed the main partition as primary and active. I tried the Toshiba HDD Utility and it failed the test immediately. Two other diagnostic programs failed to find the hard drive. So, I purchased a new hard drive and installed it. However when I went to load Windows XP from the CD, it failed to find the new hard drive. I am at my wits end. Any ideas?

P.S. I also tried changing from AHCI to Compatibility mode for both the old and new drive - made no difference.

Edited by trfatman, 23 December 2010 - 12:47 PM.

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#2
phillpower2

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Have you gone into the BIOS (tap F2 or del) and changed the boot sequence to CD/DVD first and the HDD second, saved the settings (tap F10) and exited.
Place the XP disk in the drive and restart your computer, follow the on screen instructions and be sure to format the new HDD first as it will help with a clean installation of the OS.
Basically your new HDD has none of the drivers on it for your MB etc so your system has no information so doesn`t know what to do, making sure the HDD is detected in the BIOS will help ensure the new HDD was not DOA.
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#3
trfatman

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Boot sequence is right. It boots to the CD just fine. BIOS recognizes both the old and the new drive. New drive has been low level formatted. When the XP setup disk goes through the motions, it gets to the screen to choose R for repair or enter to install XP. Either choice sends back a message that no drive was detected.
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#4
phillpower2

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You need to do a full format and then create a partition on the new HDD for the XP OS to be installed to.
The new HDD will be detected in the initial BIOS but until the above is done the new HDD has no drive letter assigned to it so there is no target for the new data to be directed to, here is a guide to assist you http://www.pcstats.c...?articleID=1778 note the importance of a full format and partitioning of the new HDD.
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