Problem Upgrading HDD on Presario M700

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

Anyone know what two flashing lights at the front means on installing a
blank HDD on an Armada M700? (Nothing else, not on pressing the power
button or on pressing sideways the other button)

There is nothing on the drive and I wanted to install an OS. It wont even
think about looking at the floppy to see to start off it.

I cant get anything more than these two flashing lights and a POWER button
light lit on the top panel

Taking the battery out doesnt seem to do anything nor does holding the
buttons dwon for a few minutes (although it DOES send the power light on
the top panel off until you take your finger off one of them)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

In article <B4ydnVLqQ4czQpffRVn-og@rcn.net>, Maria Ripanykhazova
<news.rnc.com@?.?> writes
>Anyone know what two flashing lights at the front means on installing a
>blank HDD on an Armada M700? (Nothing else, not on pressing the power
>button or on pressing sideways the other button)
>
>There is nothing on the drive and I wanted to install an OS. It wont even
>think about looking at the floppy to see to start off it.
>
>I cant get anything more than these two flashing lights and a POWER button
>light lit on the top panel
>
>Taking the battery out doesnt seem to do anything nor does holding the
>buttons dwon for a few minutes (although it DOES send the power light on
>the top panel off until you take your finger off one of them)
>
>

I cannot pretend I know the answers, however some pointers follow.

Do you mean that you have the lights are flashing before you attempt to
power on and when you attempt to power on, nothing happens. No lights
flash, nothing on the screen and no beeps?

Is this the primary hard drive or a drive in the multi-bay adapter?

Reseat the new hard drive. Make sure it is fully home and none of the
pins are bent.

Can you get into the BIOS settings (F10 while the logo is on the screen
during the power up) and make sure that your new drive is recognised.

Why are attempting an upgrade, it may be significant. Where did you get
your new drive from? Is it designed as an upgrade to the Armada M700?

Was there a jumper (cable select/master/slave) on the old drive, have
replicated this on the new drive?

It may be worth replacing the RTC battery, on a machine this old. This
battery is a button battery underneath the Modem/combo card. Remove the
main battery and the external power supply before you attempt to change
this. Allow 5 minutes between removing the old battery and inserting
the new battery. This will reset the BIOS settings.

I hope this helps.

--
Nicholas David Richards -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

Many thanks for your advice: I have a sneaking suspicion it was 'all of the
above' (except for the battery which I haven't tried yet) but suddenly the
unit sprang to life again

Now I can try out my slipstreamed XP Pro SP2 install disc to see how well
the creation process went.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

In article <OsCdnYNgaa6vEpbfRVn-oQ@rcn.net>, Maria Ripanykhazova
<news.rnc.com@?.?> writes
>Many thanks for your advice: I have a sneaking suspicion it was 'all of the
>above' (except for the battery which I haven't tried yet) but suddenly the
>unit sprang to life again
>
>Now I can try out my slipstreamed XP Pro SP2 install disc to see how well
>the creation process went.
>
>

Good luck.

Let me know how the install goes.

The version I have for my Compaq laptop is pre SP1 and it takes me the
best part of a day to install the updates.
--
Nicholas David Richards -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

nbg

It stopped when the install couldn't find its own hard drive: which is odd
as this computer wont start if there is no hard drive there!!

"Nicholas D Richards" <nicholas@salmiron.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:RpmfLuAgQ8CCFAT3@salmiron.co.uk...
> In article <OsCdnYNgaa6vEpbfRVn-oQ@rcn.net>, Maria Ripanykhazova
> <news.rnc.com@?.?> writes
> >Many thanks for your advice: I have a sneaking suspicion it was 'all of
the
> >above' (except for the battery which I haven't tried yet) but suddenly
the
> >unit sprang to life again
> >
> >Now I can try out my slipstreamed XP Pro SP2 install disc to see how well
> >the creation process went.
> >
> >
>
> Good luck.
>
> Let me know how the install goes.
>
> The version I have for my Compaq laptop is pre SP1 and it takes me the
> best part of a day to install the updates.
> --
> Nicholas David Richards -
>
> "Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

Maria,

See my posting in this WG regarding installing on a Compaq 7461. Sounds
like you've wired up the hard-drive to the wrong drive connector.

Paul DS.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

No, it is a laptop: I thought it might be something to do with the drive
coming off a Mac laptop but as I am formating the drive, it should at least
be SEEN? (or doesnt a full install of XP Pro format the drive?)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

In article <420c7389$0$16586$ed9e5944@reading.news.pipex.net>, Paul
D.Smith <paul_d_smith@x-hotmail.com> writes
>Maria,
>
>See my posting in this WG regarding installing on a Compaq 7461. Sounds
>like you've wired up the hard-drive to the wrong drive connector.
>
>Paul DS.
>
>

This would certainly explain the problem but I am not sure that this is
the case this time. In the body of the original posting the PC is
referred to as an Armada M700. I am not aware of a Presario M700, so I
assume that we are dealing with an Armada, can you confirm this Maria?
The Armada M700 is a laptop and the manual for this laptop shows that
you slide the old drive out and the new drive in. However....

Unless the drive is being inserted in the multi-bay. The drive for the
operating system should be the primary drive which is in the drive bay,
located on the side of the laptop.

If there are jumper settings on the drive that are not set correctly,
then you will have problems. The jumpers are on the back, next to the
data plug. They determine if the drive is being connected as a master,
slave or the master/slave arrangement is determined by its position on
the IDE cable (cable select). On my Compaq laptop the arrangement is
Cable Select and the hard drive just slots in.


Questions


If you look at the back of your old drive is there a jumper shorting out
two pins? If there is replicate this on your new drive and try to
install again.

What operating system do you have on the old drive?

Why are you replacing the old drive? (eg it is too small or it does not
work)?

Why is the Mac drive now being taken out of the Mac? (eg the Mac was to
receive a new drive or the Mac does not work)?

What is the ex-MAC drive (manufacturer and model/part number)

Do you have an original version of XP that you could load?

I suggest that we go one step at a time.

1 Establish that the components are compatible

2 Establish that the components all work.

3 Partition the drive

4 Install an operating system from an original disk.

5 Try to install from the slipstreamed XP.
--
Nicholas David Richards -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

or the Mac does not work)?
Good point: There generally arent any jumpers on these laptop drives as
they arent designed to be put in with other drives. (this may not be the
case with that side-bay drive on the Armada but I didnt think you could load
an OS on it?) I did put another empty drive unjumpered into the Armada and
it loaded Windows 2000 succesfully so I thought I could load an OS onto an
unformatted drive this easily. >
> What is the ex-MAC drive (manufacturer and model/part number)
The drive is a Toshiba 15 gig and running PowerMax.exe (I can't find a
Toshiba test) shows it passes quick format tests and in the last stages
fails the full advanced format test on some arcane point

I may try to Partition the drive (Fdisk) on a desktop as you suggest

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

In article <1LudnUUmsoFTmpPfRVn-3g@rcn.net>, Maria Ripanykhazova
<news.rnc.com@?.?> writes
>
>or the Mac does not work)?
>Good point: There generally arent any jumpers on these laptop drives as
>they arent designed to be put in with other drives.

I did wonder whether there are any jumpers, the manual for the M700 does
not show any jumper settings.

> (this may not be the
>case with that side-bay drive on the Armada but I didnt think you could load
>an OS on it?)

I assume not, only on the primary drive.

>I did put another empty drive unjumpered into the Armada and
>it loaded Windows 2000 succesfully so I thought I could load an OS onto an
>unformatted drive this easily. >

Windows 2000 and XP do include everything required to partition and
format a drive, and my experience has been that they are easy to use.

>> What is the ex-MAC drive (manufacturer and model/part number)
>The drive is a Toshiba 15 gig

I was hoping that you would find a model number. On the Toshiba's they
begin MK followed by 4 digits and then 2 or three alpha characters. It
probably does not matter now.

> and running PowerMax.exe (I can't find a
>Toshiba test)

Nor could I

> shows it passes quick format tests and in the last stages
>fails the full advanced format test on some arcane point

I am surprised you got that far; PowerMax is supposed to check that the
drive is a Maxtor or a Quantum drive.

>
>I may try to Partition the drive (Fdisk) on a desktop as you suggest
>
>

I meant you to do it in the M700, in the multibay or the primary
position.

I am running out of ideas now and am wondering if the drive is faulty.
The trouble is, replacement parts for laptops are so expensive.

--
Nicholas David Richards -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq,microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

Well I think I am getting somewhere: I put the drive into a desktop and
formatted it using Partition Manager. It WAS true that the XP installation
process couldnt find a drive to format by itself, which is a bit surprising.

It then goes easily into the M700 (on which as I say I have successfully
installed XP before as an exercise in seeing whether another drive was
working: I should have held on to that drive!!) and XP installs easily but
the whole process stops at first reboot with the message NTLDR is missing

Apparently (googling it) this means that you have to boot off a Windows 98
floppy (!) and do a SYS C: Amazingly this is supposed to work on XP
installations (as well as 2000 ones)

But it doesnt on mine, I just receive the error message that SYS cant find a
system in the place where it is supposed to look which is pretty unusual as
XP's installation should only be able to put it in one place! But redoing
this procedure renders no improvement and nor does formatting the FAT32
drive onto which I am doing the install as an NTFS drive. Still the same
error message. But amazingly, booting off a floppy does show that the
install process had put all the proper files in the proper place in the
windows directory. I know that this drive has errors on it but they are
comparatively minuscule and shouldnt effect

Nor does recovery console or the repair MBR or repair BOOT utilities there
help. I have definitely seen that "CAN'T FIND NTLDR" before and wonder what
I can be doing wrong?

> I am running out of ideas now and am wondering if the drive is faulty.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

Some comments are in order:

1. Toshiba is one of those dim-witted hardware companies who do not see fit to
provide free hard disk diagnostics on their web site. Fortunately, Maxtor
PowerMax is not especially picky.

2. If a hard drive has even one bad sector, continuing to use it is playing with
fire. A single bad sector nowadays is a strong predictor of future drive
failures, either miniscule sector failures or catastrophic crashes.

3. Does the full capacity of the drive show up in the system BIOS setup or when
formatted with the DOS FORMAT command? If not, then there is no simple and easy
workaround for notebook computer with a BIOS that imposes hard drive capacity
limitations.

4. If the drive was previously used on a Mac, I would suggest zeroing out all
the sectors on the drive before attempting any of the steps needed to install
Windows. PowerMax has this feature. Actually, it's only necessary to wipe out
the first sectors on the drive, not the entire drive contents. Mac hard disk
formats are entirely incompatible with Windows, and may be creating confusion
with some part of the installation process... Ben Myers

On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 16:11:50 +0000, Nicholas D Richards
<nicholas@salmiron.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>In article <1LudnUUmsoFTmpPfRVn-3g@rcn.net>, Maria Ripanykhazova
><news.rnc.com@?.?> writes
>>
>>or the Mac does not work)?
>>Good point: There generally arent any jumpers on these laptop drives as
>>they arent designed to be put in with other drives.
>
>I did wonder whether there are any jumpers, the manual for the M700 does
>not show any jumper settings.
>
>> (this may not be the
>>case with that side-bay drive on the Armada but I didnt think you could load
>>an OS on it?)
>
>I assume not, only on the primary drive.
>
>>I did put another empty drive unjumpered into the Armada and
>>it loaded Windows 2000 succesfully so I thought I could load an OS onto an
>>unformatted drive this easily. >
>
>Windows 2000 and XP do include everything required to partition and
>format a drive, and my experience has been that they are easy to use.
>
>>> What is the ex-MAC drive (manufacturer and model/part number)
>>The drive is a Toshiba 15 gig
>
>I was hoping that you would find a model number. On the Toshiba's they
>begin MK followed by 4 digits and then 2 or three alpha characters. It
>probably does not matter now.
>
>> and running PowerMax.exe (I can't find a
>>Toshiba test)
>
>Nor could I
>
>> shows it passes quick format tests and in the last stages
>>fails the full advanced format test on some arcane point
>
>I am surprised you got that far; PowerMax is supposed to check that the
>drive is a Maxtor or a Quantum drive.
>
>>
>>I may try to Partition the drive (Fdisk) on a desktop as you suggest
>>
>>
>
>I meant you to do it in the M700, in the multibay or the primary
>position.
>
>I am running out of ideas now and am wondering if the drive is faulty.
>The trouble is, replacement parts for laptops are so expensive.
>
>--
>Nicholas David Richards -
>
>"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

Ben
Did I not do adequately by completely formatting the drive in Partition
Commander? I admit I did try ignoring the contents and reformatting it and
it was completely formatted FAT32 and is now quick-formatted NTFS: Is there
any possibility that any Apple sectors remain which prevent NTLDR being
either put in the proper place OR being seen on boot? If so what should I do
having formatted it so many times?

I admit, the full format did take hours and numerous bad sectors were
identified but when it was finished, there were only a few tiny parts of the
drive which showed up as being unusable, less than a few megabytes out of a
15 Gig hard drive. That is why I am trying it: I will do a Norton Disc
DOctor on the drive when I have an OS installed and see if it is disastrous,
Then I will take a decision on whether I should replace this drive on a
tertiary-use computer. I certainly dont intend putting anything significant
on it or anything I wouldnt mind losing: This will probably be my living
room computer for surfing the internet while I am watching television, If I
come across a 'favorite' I need to add to a bookmark, I can surely do this
across a network?

> 3. Does the full capacity of the drive show up in the system BIOS setup or
when
> formatted with the DOS FORMAT command? If not, then there is no simple
and easy
> workaround for notebook computer with a BIOS that imposes hard drive
capacity
> limitations.

I am not sure that an Armada M700 is a BIOS that imposes hard drive
capacity limitations.

> 4. If the drive was previously used on a Mac, I would suggest zeroing out
all
> the sectors on the drive before attempting any of the steps needed to
install
> Windows. PowerMax has this feature. Actually, it's only necessary to
wipe out
> the first sectors on the drive, not the entire drive contents. Mac hard
disk
> formats are entirely incompatible with Windows, and may be creating
confusion
> with some part of the installation process... Ben Myers

Do YOU think this is preventing NTLDR being seen on a drive which has been
full-formatted three or four times now, both in FAT32 and NTFS?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq (More info?)

Not sure if this constitutes unwarranted trolling but I did manage to get
this whole thing working and an OS installed by formatting the HDD to a size
which seemed to make the C partition smaller than the position where the bad
sectors started on the hard drive: Now everything works fine. It is a 16 gig
drive with only about 10 meg of bad sectors.

PROBLEM: The C parttiion is only 2 gigs.(it is continuuosly reporting
running out of space despite having put the pagesys file and all program
files and data files on the D drive) So I want to expand it into the D
partitoin using Partition Commander which can do this easily (even if it
does entail possibly putting a bad sector on to the C partition)

Does anyone know why the M700 is the only computer I have of all my laptops
and desktops which will not recognise the Partition Commander boot disc as a
boot disc?