• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Need help connecting a laptop hard drive to a desktop PC

G

GaryGnu

Member
I've got a laptop hard drive on which I need to format, and reinstall Windows. I have a laptop HD to regular HD adapter. No matter what I do, or how I connect it, I cannot boot off of it (it boots fine when connected to the laptop) nor have it recognized when booting off another drive. The adapter I have is a little strange (bought off ebay). There were no instructions with it, and the way the pins are, I can hook it to the laptop in 2 different ways, and to the IDE HD cable for the desktop 2 different ways. How do I know which way is correct? I have tried all possible combinations. I have even gone so far as disconnecting all of my other hard drives, and run a IDE cable directory from the Primary IDE to this laptop hard drive. Nothing works! The drive is never recognized.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
One wire on one end of the wire strip should be red. This represents wire 1 which connects to pin 1. Your hard drive and motherboard should have pin 1 marked. If not, check the manual or the website.

This doesn't help not being able to boot of it though as I'm sure that the drive would not work at all if the connector was reversed.

Have you checked the slave/master jumper on the drive?
 
About the master/slave setting... on the laptop hard drive, there are 4 prongs with nothing on them. This is the way I pulled it out of the laptop. I'm assuming no jumpers means Master? Otherwise this could be the problem.

I should also mention that my desktop contains an IDE controller, however, I had everything disconnected from the IDE controller and had the laptop HD connected directly to the primary IDE drive (I also tried connecting it to the primary IDE controller port). Also, the laptop HD is configured with Windows 95. Not sure if that makes a difference.

Gary
 
Make sure that the laptop drive is the only drive on the that IDE channel (i.e. the IDE cable is connected the motherboard on one end and the laptop on the other with nothing else connected to that cable). The connector I have is a little picky. I have to plug the drive in and then position the drive so that pressure is applied to the bottom or top pins. Of course my adapter is a little used. As mentioned above, pin 1 should match up with pin 1 on the laptop HDD. Whatever you do, do not wiggle the drive once it is getting power, you will fry your adapter.
 
OK, I have officially tried everything I know. My knowledge is limited, but I thought I could handle this seemingly simple task. No matter what I do, my desktop PC **WILL NOT** recognize this laptop hard drive. The only thing that makes sense now is that the adapter is bad (it was brand new). You say not to move the drive once it has power to it. I've probably done that several times. I've probably had this drive connected and reconnected 30 times! I even tried disconnecting my PCI IDE controller so that only the laptop hard drive is connected via any IDE cables. I tried fiddling around with the BIOS, even entered customized user settings for the hard drive in the BIOS, NOTHING WORKS. I even fdisk'd and reformatted the laptop HD in the laptop. Its fine, but only in the laptop! Does anyone have anything else to try??? I'm at my wit's end here. Here is the info on the laptop hard drive. Its fairly old: Toshiba MK1926FCV HDD2517 814MB (CYL1579, H16, S63). Here is my desktop system:

Pentium II 266 MHz
Abit LX6 Motherboard
BIOS dated 6/17/99
Windows 98 SE
 
Well, 2 things you still haven't given us complete answers for. You are right in your assumptions about both, but given the trouble you are having, I would make sure your assumptions are correct.

If there are no jumpers I would assume it is master. Go to the HD manufacturers website and check the pin settings for the drive. Make sure no jumpers sets master and not cable select. I would even jumper the master setting just to be sure.

I would assume that if it boots in the laptop, the partition is an active master. But some laptops have strange proprietary setups. You might use FDISK or something to make sure it is a bootable partition.

Last, we need more clues. Does the drive power up? Does the bios recognize the drive? Does it see that a drive is there but not recognize the specs in its auto config? You could try getting the specs on the drive from the manufacturers website and setting it up manually in your bios.

Are you sure now which is pin 1 on the HD and the mobo? Have you plugged the drive back into the laptop since doing all this to make sure the drive is still working properly?

Or your adapter could be bad...
 
In answer to your questions:
1) I have checked the specs. "No jumpers" is master setting.
2) According to Fdisk, the drive is bootable (set to active).
3) I do not know if the drive powers up when connected to the desktop. I have no way of telling. I have tried several different power cords from various working drives.
4) The BIOS does NOT recognize the drive. If I use my PCI controller, I get a Drive 0/Drive 1 not found message. If I disconnect the controller, using Mobo Primary IDE, it also does not get detected.
5) I did try manually setting the specs for the drive in my BIOS. When I do that, I get an immediate "primary hard drive failure" message from the BIOS.
6) I am matching PIN 1 on the adapter to the red marked wire on the IDE cable. I am unsure of which way the laptop side is supposed to be connected, but I have tried both ways numerous times.
7) I have plugged the drive back into the laptop, and the drive is recognized.

Thanks.

Gary
 
Wow, I'm getting stumped.

I assume that you checked the bootable partition in FDISK on your laptop? If you did it on the desktop machine, that would mean it has to be accessing the drive, which it shouldn't if the bios isn't recognizing it. Theres nothing unusual about that drive or motherboard. At this point I would be getting pretty suspicious of the adaptor. You should be able to pick up another one for not more than about $5 at any computer parts store.

I've done this with my laptop hard drive with no such problems.
 
Yes, I checked the bootable partition with FDISK on the laptop. I am going to buy a new adapter tomorrow. Since I last wrote, I tried to get this laptop drive recognized as a slave. This was also unsuccessful. With this drive as a slave (jumper set), neither the laptop HD nor my regular HD were found.
 
My laptop hard drive adapter doesn't look like the one in the picture. It does not have that cable in the middle. Do you know what that is for? The only wires I have extended from mine are for the power cord.
 
That particular adapter has an LED on that middle cable to help indicate a good connection and disk activity...... Like the indicator light on the front of your case when the hard drive is working........ Good luck!
 
It was the adapter. Man, what a waste of time. I bought a different adapter today, and it worked fine, first try through the primary IDE channel as the master. Many thanks to all who assisted.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top