Swapping HDD

[Chris-M]

Hiya,

I have a Toshiba 2450 but the HDD seems to be on the way out. I also have been given a Toshiba A30 so the plan was to move the HDD from the A30 to the 2450. Unfortunately, while the A30 drive works fine in the A30, the 2450 will not boot up from it. The two drives have the same spec so I don't think the problem is there. When the 2450 boots in safe mode, it downloads the files off the disk (they scroll up on the screen) but, then, that is it! Anyone have any ideas? I'm stumped!! Cheers, Chris

 

[gtvr]

without looking up the computers, I'm guessing incompatible drivers (motherboard, video, something else). Can you reinstall windows on the 2450? Do you have a reinstall CD?

 

[Chris-M]

hiya gtvr, cheers for getting back on this. Normally HHD are fairly standard, particularly between "similiar" models for the same company, and the drivers are loaded as part of the inital boot sequence - which it seems to do - the files are read off the disk OK. The disk works fine on the A30 (ie I'm using it now!)/ It's just when I swap it to the 2450 it seems to stop half way through the boot. The only thing I can think of is that the drive has two Partitions which may confuse the 2450 as the partitions were created on the A30. Throuble is, the only place that may cause an issue is with the BIOS set-up though I can't find anything in either BIOS which relates to Partitions. Structurally the disk is the same (size, tracks, sectors etc) so, in theory, the 2450 should just read it and boot up as normal. The old 2450 drive has too many problems and failed on a complete reformat and load so that's the problem. Suppose I could try formatting this drive in the 2450 - but I'm not sure as it works fine and, if it ain't broke.......!!!!!!! You know the saying! Anyway, if you ahve any ideas! Cheers, Chris

 

[gtvr]

No, the partition info is on the HD, not the BIOS.

I mean, the OS installed on the HD has drivers for the laptop hardware - video card, motherboard, etc. So the lappy starts reading the HD, then during boot loads a driver for the motherboard (or whatever) and bada bing, barfs. Not to get too technical

 

[Chris-M]

Ah-ha, I see exactly where you are coming from re drivers etc. now! Guess "Cunning Plan No 1" is out the window then. The last time I played "swap the HDD" it was between two virtually identical machines - many years ago - when things were far more simple!!! And it worked a treat.

I guess the only thing for it is a formatted HDD and the OS disk for the machine - which is somewhere .... but where! Mind you, the 2450 must be 5 or 6 years old now so maybe, all things considered, it's time to treat myself to a new machine! The A30 is fine for most things but a little under-spec'd for some things so I can afford to shop around and I may go for a desktop anyway. A friend had the A30 gathering dust as they have got a better machine now so it is, essentially, "free"! Just need to load all the stuff I use on to it. The only slight trouble is, the USB port does not seem to be "man enough" to power the external HDD drive I used to backup all my data. Still, that can be got round in slow time.

Ah well, had a go at salvaging something! Unless you have any suggestions - I'll go for Plan "new PC"! Thanks for your help. As I said, if you do think of anything.....! LOL!

Regards, Chris