Hard Drive not showing up in bios

maccer666

Hi all,i got a laptop from a friend that would not boot,i had a look in the bios and it showed that no hard drive was present so i opened it up and put the hard drive in an enclosure to check it.

When i hooked the enclosure into my pc the hard drive shows up fine and i can see everything.

Anyone got any idea why the bios cant see it

zenno

the bios is probably corrupted. you could go into the bios and look for load setup defaults and click that and save and restart worth a try to rule out any corruption.

maccer666

zenno wrote: »

the bios is probably corrupted. you could go into the bios and look for load setup defaults and click that and save and restart worth a try to rule out any corruption.

Sorry should have said,i have tried that and the problem is still there,also i tried another hard drive and that showed up,i just cant understand why one does and the other doesnt show in the bios but both can be seen by windows

zenno

maccer666 wrote: »

Sorry should have said,i have tried that and the problem is still there,also i tried another hard drive and that showed up,i just cant understand why one does and the other doesnt show in the bios but both can be seen by windows

have you tried to flash the bios ? or update the bios?. if not and you decide to do so go onto the laptops manufacturers website and download it. if there is no newer version bios update you can still download the same version you have and flash it.

also did you check that all jumpers are properly connected to the hard drive.

zenno

also.. If the jumpers are correct, but the drive is still not showing up, go into the BIOS setup and make sure the drive detection is set to AUTO.

maccer666

zenno wrote: »

have you tried to flash the bios ? or update the bios?. if not and you decide to do so go onto the laptops manufacturers website and download it. if there is no newer version bios update you can still download the same version you have and flash it.

also did you check that all jumpers are properly connected to the hard drive.

will go and have a look for bios update now and post back with results.

im not really sure about jumpers? is that just the pins?

zenno

maccer666 wrote: »

will go and have a look for bios update now and post back with results.

im not really sure about jumpers? is that just the pins?

yes but be sure to check in case there is a cable that connects to the hard drive as well. there might not be but just check around to make sure there are no cables unplugged. and also make sure you download the exact bios for the laptop.

what is the make and model number of this laptop ?.

maccer666

zenno wrote: »

yes but be sure to check in case there is a cable that connects to the hard drive as well. there might not be but just check around to make sure there are no cables unplugged. and also make sure you download the exact bios for the laptop.

what is the make and model number of this laptop ?.

ok so theres no cable anywhere,also i have the bios update downloaded but its just a setup.exe file and a .rom file,i guess ive to make a bootable cd with them on it or something.

laptop is a toshiba satellite A30

zenno

maccer666 wrote: »

ok so theres no cable anywhere,also i have the bios update downloaded but its just a setup.exe file and a .rom file,i guess ive to make a bootable cd with them on it or something.

laptop is a toshiba satellite A30

the only way I know to do this is with a floppy disc. unless someone here can give some info on putting it on a bootable cd. will look into it. that setup.exe is a problem though. will have a look and see what the procedure is for this laptop.

maccer666

zenno wrote: »

the only way I know to do this is with a floppy disc. unless someone here can give some info on putting it on a bootable cd. will look into it. that setup.exe is a problem though. will have a look and see what the procedure is for this laptop.

i have it burning to a cd right now so ill see i get on with that

maccer666

i got it burned to a cd and booted into dos, buts thats as far as i got,i cant run the setup.exe from dos.

Anyone know is there a wat to do so

zenno

maccer666 wrote: »

i got it burned to a cd and booted into dos, buts thats as far as i got,i cant run the setup.exe from dos.

Anyone know is there a wat to do so

well I do know it's a very tricky job to do and if not done right it can destroy your laptop. someone with good knowledge on making the cd bootable using nero or other software will know the step by step exact instructions.

using a floppy drive is always the easiest way but unfortunately not in this case. i'm just wondering as well if the sata drivers for the hard drive are actually installed as well.

EDIT: from what I have read so far with people with the same problem is that they have updated the bios but that didn't work.

if I find any relevent helpful information on a fix for this I'll post it here.

zenno

theres a few more things in the bios you can try.

log into the bios and change the disk controller setting from AHCI to IDE. see if that works. if not change it to compatability mode then save changes and exit.

if that doesn't work disable sata and see if that works.

hearny

If you have a spare hard drive that works you could install windows on that (provided you have backed up anything as you will lose the data on it).

Run the setup file to update the BIOS, then switch the hard drives again to test.

If the computer is old the hard drive may be too big for the version of the bios to read.

Is it SATA or IDE.

maccer666

zenno wrote: »

theres a few more things in the bios you can try.

log into the bios and change the disk controller setting from AHCI to IDE. see if that works. if not change it to compatability mode then save changes and exit.

if that doesn't work disable sata and see if that works.

No joy with trying that either im afraid

maccer666

hearny wrote: »

If you have a spare hard drive that works you could install windows on that (provided you have backed up anything as you will lose the data on it).

Run the setup file to update the BIOS, then switch the hard drives again to test.

If the computer is old the hard drive may be too big for the version of the bios to read.

Is it SATA or IDE.

It was only a 40 gig ide drive so the bios should have seen it,anyway i did find an old drive that i put in and that was seen by the bios (also 40 gig) so i installed windows on that then updated the bios but the first drive was still not seen so i just put the working drive back in and its working fine.

Still a little puzzledas to why the other one wasnt seen by the bios but showed up in windows when i put it in an enclosure but thats another days work

cheers for the help

zenno

It's a strange one alright, maybe the non-working hard drive was just not compatible or it's just on the way out. anyway at least you have a working hard-drive now and laptop.

danger_mouse_tm

Turn off ahci in the bios or switch to compatibility mode. whichever option there is