IBM T30 can't recognize WD HDD

[Larue]

So My story is following :
I have couple of IBM T30 laptops, which I'm using for cars diagnostics. Got some diagnostics stuff from well known Eastern country (China). It's came with 80Gb HDD loaded with diagnostics software for T30.
HDD is EIDE Western Digital:WD 800BEVE
Serial number: WXE107G12546
Part Number:xxxxxx-xx
CT:....loads of x'es ( I'm not wery high in these computers things).
So....put in that HDD in laptop and.....nothing.... My old T30 can't recognize it.
I have PATA to USB adapter.....plugged in USB port of another laptop and I can see all things what should be inside. It's recognized, BUT ..... Using Partition Magic it's says that disc structure is wrong.
The same results I could get using testdisc program.
First of all I was thinking it's might be bootable external HDD( throw USB)...no. That's not working.
Second thing - wiped out all data from it and then wrote right disc structure by testdisc, checked by Partition Magic - OK, had set to active, primary....and no joy. Exactly the same.
Downloaded data lifeguard from WD homepage and it could recognize HDD throw USB, but at the same time couldn't recognize serial number and couldn't pass SMART test.
At the same time I can plug in in the same T30 laptop My 120Gb Samsung HDD and all is good!
Now thinking about reflashing BIOS on that laptop....don't want to do that....there is some risc.
The question is: Is that Western Digital HDD broken or just not compatible with IBM T30 laptop?
.....or I'm doing something wrong.
P.S. Every time before HDD swapping I had removed main battery and CMOS battery from laptop.

[gregk]

Hi Larue
Does your new disk have operating system pre loaded or just soft? With out pre loaded OS on new hard drive it will not work. Unless and most propably new drive is for file storage only and you have to install all programs on your existing T30 laptop with original hard drive. By swaping your 2nd hard drive from working t30 you'll have OS alredy installed on there and becouse it's from same model of laptop it will work on your 1st laptop with out problems.
If for instance you had 2 diffrent makes of laptop windows will not start.

[Larue]

Thanks for replay!
There was operating system loaded (Windows XP) and some diagnostics software( Mercedes Star) which should be installed for IBM T30.
I'm going to by some other HDD on ebay to reinstall all this from scratch. I have all needed installations.
Just wondering why even after formatting and making all things right on this Hdd it's still isn't recognized by laptop?
Cheers!

[Larue]

Just to update all this....
After some thinking, messing arround all this I found pins for WD Hdd are bit shorter and more far from plug in computer than in Samsung HDD. So had plugged in without Hdd caddy and here I go!
All is sorted now!
Thanks!

[gregk]

Great thanks for update. One to watch out for in future.

[hornhunter]

SOS SOS SOS....

Hi friends,

I am completely stunt at this moment, I will try to tell YOu what is going on here but now it looks like twilight zone....

I have here T23 and T30, have few HDDs, this is what is going on:
When I put Seagate Momentus 5400.2 60GB model ST96812AS and Hitachi 80GB model HTS541080G9AT00 laptops boot regulary and everything is ok, but when I put in Seagate Momentus 5400.3 60GB model ST96012A and Western Digital WD800BEVE-00UYT0 and Seagate Momentus 5400.2 100GB model ST9100823A after the splash screen I get only blinking cursor and nothing happening. I have upgraded BIOS, in BIOS I see all these HDDs recognized ok, I even tried to install fresh windows, I copied windows files to HDD as it should when I started installation and after first restart when it should boot from HDD for the first time after booting from CD same thing happens...

I even tried to replace electronics because of the lenght of the connectors, I removed the HDD box I tryed everything I knew about even firmware upgrade for HDDs but the software said I do not need to upgrade firmware, nothing worked, can anybody help me with all this I really do not know what else is there to do.
Only thing I can now think is that these HDDs are not compatibile with IBM Thinkpad T23 and T30.

Any help is more then welcome, thank You guys

[gregk]

Did you try running hard disk diagnostic software to see if the drives check out OK. It might be that they are just fulty. With bad sectors or just not reading/writing properly. I used to have a couple of disks in the past that showed up in bios but were fulty ie: would not write or read. Have you got an external enclousere to test the disk in?

[hornhunter]

Did you try running hard disk diagnostic software to see if the drives check out OK. It might be that they are just fulty. With bad sectors or just not reading/writing properly. I used to have a couple of disks in the past that showed up in bios but were fulty ie: would not write or read. Have you got an external enclousere to test the disk in?

I have done all tests and everything is OK, I tested all, surface, bad sectors, in specialized diagnostic tools for each HDD...

[oscarescodo]

thanks gregk.
I have hitachi hdd 500 gb cant read from.I will try hard disk diagnostics.Aprecciate it thanks