General Technology & Troubleshooting Topics

[#1]

I have a Satellite M35X-S163 that I am trying to fix for a friend.  It was getting the error msg that indicates HD failure so got a replacement HD and installed.  When I run recovery disk to reinstall operating system and software I get message that there is no HD.  Did I miss something?

[#2]

Quite possibly.  For whatever reason Toshiba doesn't have a Detailed Spec Sheet for that model on their support page so I can't verify this, but I'm betting that it uses an IDE hard drive interface.  If that is so, and based on the age of that system I'm 99% certain that it does NOT have 48bit addressing required for hard drives larger than 137gb in size.  If you are trying to install a 160gb, 230gb, or even larger hard drive it probably won't work.  Of course you failed to inform us of what hard drive you are trying to use so I can't verify if this is the problem or not. 

What you need to do now is go into the BIos and see if the hard drive is listed there or not.  Also, please let us know exactly what brand and model number of laptop you are attemptint to use.

[#3]

The harddrive I am installing is a 60GB.  One thing I have noticed is that when the recovery system starts to run, I get a msg that says "fixed disk not found".  When I look in setup It does show that the harddrive is there.  Is there a jumper setting that will allow the recovery programs to recognize that there is a hard drive installed?

[#4]

The original drive was a Hitachi Travelstar 60GB ATA-6 (IC25N060).  The replacement I purchased and was told is compatible is a Hitachi HTS541060G9AT00.  The only difference I see between the two is that the original spins at 4200 RPM and the new is at 5400 RPM.