[eiretrish]

I am trying to replace a bad hard drive (30 gb) on my Dell Inspiron 2650 hard drive with a new 40 gb hard drive (Samsung MP0402H) I purchased on ebay. It did not come with an installation CD.

I researched Samsung.com, and downloaded the appropriate Disk Manager program as well as HUTIL.EXE. After several attempts, I cannot get the new hard drive to be recognized by my dell notebook, as well as Windows XP setup. In addition, the disk manager program is also not identifying a hard drive as well.

I am new to this, and am a bit confuses as to how to set my jumper cables to be a master drive (or master with slave??). Do I need to manipulate the actual hard drive itself (pins?). And if so, is the warranty violated if I do.

As for CMOS, the disk manager instructions also are confusing. I can change the parallel port to auto, but cannot access anything regarding the hard drive.

ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

I will add a Samsung attachment as a reference.

Thanks,

Trish

Attached Files

•  SAMSUNG_s_Digital_World___Hard_Disk_Drive___Utilities.htm   67.64KB   314 downloads

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some hard drive have to be format before u use it .did u format it yet? and i think dell pc deal wit master so try that

Edited by mcfart01, 24 July 2005 - 11:23 AM.

[mcfart01]

some hard drive have to be format before u use it .did u format it yet? and i think dell pc deal wit master so try that

Edited by mcfart01, 24 July 2005 - 11:23 AM.

[wannabe1]

Hi eiretrish...Welcome to G2G!

This could be any one of several things. Setting the HDD to master with the jumpers on the rear of the drive would be the first thing to check (although most drives come shipped already set to the master position). Instructions for checking that can be found by clicking the link below. Setting the jumpers will not violate your warranty.

http://www.samsung.c...ersguide_02.htm

Then check to see that all cables are sucurely seated and that the power plug is all the way in.

Next, check to make sure that you BIOS is set to "Auto" detect the drives. While you are in BIOS setup, also change your Boot order so that the CD-Rom is the first boot device. Save your settings and exit BIOS setup. Put your Windows XP cd into the drive and press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to restart. See if this doesn't detect your drive and prompt you to boot from cd. (I am assuming that you will be installing Windows XP...if not, please post back with more information.)

If you get this far, post back with the results and we can walk you through the formatting and install process.

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 24 July 2005 - 12:39 PM.

[eiretrish]

Thank you so much for responding to my problem. When looking over the Samsung web page, I think the new drive is appropriate as a master. The problem seems to be in CMOS.

My CMOS is the Phoenix Bios Setup Utility. It contains the following options and accessible areas:

Main
System Time
System Date
Quiet Boot
Video Display Device
System devices??
Internal touch pad
Sticky Fn Font
Parallel Port (I changed ti Auto)
Mode
Boot sequence
Exit

When looking at the Samsung CMOS sample, the main area has more options, allowing a user to change hard drive settings.

Is there a way that I can access the correct CMOS program?

Thanks again,

Trish

[in_texas_dallas]

Why don't you just add the HDD instead of replacing?? Neither of those hdd are that large, if you want to replace with a bigger one, just add it outright, this is also a lot easier.

As far as getting it recognized, you probably want to run the driver, shut down your computer, add the hdd (using slave jumper settings), restart your computer and that should auto-detect again. Depending on your driver and how it works (check directions) you may have to run the driver after you install the HDD..

[wannabe1]

Hello eiretrish...

BIOS Setup can be confusing, huh?

When you get into the BIOS setup, the first screen should have the "MAIN" column selected...use the arrow keys to select "Primary Master" and press "Enter"...On the resulting screen, the "Type" of detection should be selected...Use the "+" and/or "-" keys to change the field to "AUTO" and press the "Esc" key to exit this screen and return to the previous one.

Next, using the arrow keys, select the "BOOT" column and, using the arrow keys again, select "Boot Device Priority" Press Enter...Now, using the "+" and/or "-" keys, change the top boot device to the cd-rom drive (ATAPI CD-ROM)...press "Esc" to exit that screen, then use the arrow keys again to select "EXIT"...Press "Enter" to "Exit Saving Changes"...Put your XP cd in the cd-rom drive...Press "Enter" again to answer the "Yes/No" prompt.

Your machine should now reboot. If it doesn't do so automatically, press "Ctrl + Alt + Delete" to restart. When the machine boots up, watch the bottom of the screen...you should see and line which reads "Boot from CD"...a short moment later another line will appear which reads "Press any key to boot from cd"...press a key to continue...Windows should then start setup.

If this all works, post back and we'll continue with the next steps.

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 24 July 2005 - 04:13 PM.

[eiretrish]

The problem with my CMOS bios is the limitation to access in the main area. I can only access date, time, quiet boot and video display device. All other areas are shadowed out, including the hard drive.

Is there a way to unshadow the hard drive feature in order to access and make changes?

Or is something else wrong (motherboard or processor??)

thanks,

Trish

[eiretrish]

Below is the last post from Dell Support. Considering my dilemna with my Samsung MP0402H 40 gb hard drive as well as limited access to CMOS, I am more perplexed than ever.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Trish

From: US_CTS_Mobile_Support
Date: 07/25/05 12:32:12
To: Patricia Kelly
Subject: Re: #Inspiron#DHS##29# eTrack#=27076391YM7R917R - Update - Software/BIOS (KMM17980962I21063L0KM)


Dear Ms. M Kelly,

Thank you for choosing Dell Technical Support.

Ms. M Kelly, I have gone through your e-mail and understand the concern completely.

Please note that the system's BIOS allows only these features like System date, System time, Quiet boot, Video display device to be modified. Moreover, you don't need to set any Master/Slave drives in a laptop system. As far as auto detect is concerned, if the drive is compatible with the system, it will be detected by the BIOS automatically and you don't need to make any extra special settings.

There's nothing to worry regaridng installing the hard drive. Once you install the new drive it will be dedected in BIOS and you can also check in BIOS.

[wannabe1]

Hello, again, eiretrish...

This project certainly has turned into a sour can of worms, hasn't it? Let's take a moment to regroup and see if we've missed something along the way...

Is the hard drive installed correctly in the computer? All connections mated properly and no bent pins, etc?

When you downloaded the file (HUTIL.EXE) from the Samsung site, did you also get the file DM_Creator.zip? If you did get this file, did you make the floppy as directed on this page? http://product.samsu...main.jsp?eUser= and then run it as they suggest and did the program run as they describe it?


wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 25 July 2005 - 06:22 PM.

[eiretrish]

The disk program ran okay, but did not recognize the hard drive. I also never saw the screens that were to be available from disk manager, due to no access to install the hard drive. When the screen appears asking you to choose the correct drive slot (primary, slave, secondary master, etc.) the slots are open, with the exception of a picture of secondary master, but not option to install.

As for hutil.exe, I ran it as a batch file (since I do not have an operating system) and it also did not detect the hard drive.

It is a bit perplexing. According to Dell Support (who I am not impressed with) the drive should be auto detected. I am thinking that maybe the hard drive itself is defective.

Trish

[in_texas_dallas]

Dunno..
Go through the installation of the hard disc itself
make sure power is connected. Pin properly connected.

Sometimes it's little things that sometimes we can overlook.

Otherwise, yeah, you might want to try to return the HDD and get another one

PS??? Did you try to install this hdd in replace of the current one or as an additional hard drive/?

[eiretrish]

I am going to try one more time, and then give up. It might just be a faulty hard drive.

Thanks,

Trish

[wannabe1]

eiretrish...

Have you tried any other installation software? I've used Maxtor diagnostics on several brands of harddrives with pretty good success. You might give it a try before giving up.

http://www.maxtor.co...s&downloadID=57

Download MaxBlast 4...follow the instructions on the download page.

wannabe1

[eiretrish]

I contacted the seller, and he mentioned replacing the pin adapters from the old hard drive onto the new hard drive.

I am not sure how to do this, or even if it can be done. I noticed six small silver screws around the hard drive itself, and was able to remove five of the six from my old hard drive (the damaged one). I need a better philips screw driver to get the last one out.

Am I on the right path?

Trish

[wannabe1]

eiretrish...

I HIGHLY advise against opening up any hard drive. If even the smallest particle of dust or debris gets in there, the drive is destined for failure. Plus...I have yet to see a drive where the "pin adaptor" was not soldered to the board that operates the drive. There are no user serviceable parts inside the drive (that I am aware of).

In looking back over your posts, I don't see anything about how the old drive failed. Was it powering up? Check all of the pins on the back of the drive to see that none of them are bent or missing. Check your cables again. Check your jumpers again.

Have you tried the Maxtor software? Give that a try.

wannabe1