I have a Gateway M460 laptop in which the hard drive went south rapidly due to SMART error detection. I was able to pull all my files from the hard drive using Recuva by connecting it to another computer via a USB adapter before it really got into trouble. I wanted to upgrade the hard drive on the machine to a 80GB (the maximum size per Gateway's website). This machine has a PATA/IDE type drive. I have the restore disks for this machine here ready to go. The machine will POST with the old HDD installed, but the restore disc is unable to reload the HDD due to numerous errors and failures. Fair enough. But the point is that the machine does POST. I can access the BIOS and the machine 'spins' up the old HDD.
Enter the new 80GB Seagate drive. This is a brand new drive. If I connect the drive to the machine, the computer will not POST. Immediately upon pressing the 'power' button, the second light from the right in the status indicators turns purple and the machine just sits there. This purple light is the module indicator and is supposed to indicate that the module is ready to swap. Whatever that means. No BIOS, no spin-up of the hard drive, no access of the CD drive which is primary.....nada, zip, goose egg.
Take that new hard drive and connect it via a USB adapter and the drive can be partitioned, formatted, accessed, anything you want on another computer. I used Partition Wizard to do all this stuff. I even made the drive partition 40GB to match the size of the original drive and made the partition 'active'. Put the drive back into the M460....purple light on power up and .....no POST, no BIOS, no spin-up of the hard drive, nada, zip, goose egg.
I have removed the battery, removed the CD drive. In deperation I swapped the new hard drive with an older 30GB that I had laying around and the restore discs run flawlessly. I've even updated the BIOS to the latest version when I'm able to access the BIOS with either the original drive or my 30Gb stand-in connected.
I also tried a 100GB drive partitioned down to 40GB. Same purple light.
I've tried all of the jumper settings (master, slave and cable select) without any difference (on the 80Gb and the 100GB). I'm at my wits end. What am I missing? Even if the M460 doesn't support an 80GB hard drive, wouldn't it be fine partitioned as a 40GB hard drive? The original hard drive is a Toshiba. But that shouldn't make any difference. Is there a known incompatibility with Gateway and Seagate? I've never come across this issue before. I need some help and you folks are the best resource. Your thoughts and help are greatly appreciated!
Enter the new 80GB Seagate drive. This is a brand new drive. If I connect the drive to the machine, the computer will not POST. Immediately upon pressing the 'power' button, the second light from the right in the status indicators turns purple and the machine just sits there. This purple light is the module indicator and is supposed to indicate that the module is ready to swap. Whatever that means. No BIOS, no spin-up of the hard drive, no access of the CD drive which is primary.....nada, zip, goose egg.
Take that new hard drive and connect it via a USB adapter and the drive can be partitioned, formatted, accessed, anything you want on another computer. I used Partition Wizard to do all this stuff. I even made the drive partition 40GB to match the size of the original drive and made the partition 'active'. Put the drive back into the M460....purple light on power up and .....no POST, no BIOS, no spin-up of the hard drive, nada, zip, goose egg.
I have removed the battery, removed the CD drive. In deperation I swapped the new hard drive with an older 30GB that I had laying around and the restore discs run flawlessly. I've even updated the BIOS to the latest version when I'm able to access the BIOS with either the original drive or my 30Gb stand-in connected.
I also tried a 100GB drive partitioned down to 40GB. Same purple light.
I've tried all of the jumper settings (master, slave and cable select) without any difference (on the 80Gb and the 100GB). I'm at my wits end. What am I missing? Even if the M460 doesn't support an 80GB hard drive, wouldn't it be fine partitioned as a 40GB hard drive? The original hard drive is a Toshiba. But that shouldn't make any difference. Is there a known incompatibility with Gateway and Seagate? I've never come across this issue before. I need some help and you folks are the best resource. Your thoughts and help are greatly appreciated!