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| Thread ID: 27089 | 2002-11-13 10:44:00 | old 486 laptop not detecting Hard drive | artpepper (1321) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 98378 | 2002-11-13 10:44:00 | I'm trying to extract some files from my old laptop (a 486, b&W indeed) but on start-up it asks for the boot up disc which I have never had and it says it does not detect the C drive... I have had this happen before but it always seemed to come right after a couple of times fiddling around with on/off etc - note there is nothing wrong with this but I lack the knowledge of how to fix this can u help please? cheers |
artpepper (1321) | ||
| 98379 | 2002-11-14 01:13:00 | What make and model? (You can probably solve this yourself by giving (e.g) "Tandy HD3800 bios setup" to google). My Tandy didn't know about its hard disk. I downloaded the setup programme, ran it from a DOS disk, and the disk was there. Some laptops do not have a rom based setup programme. They use a programme on the hard disk. If the BIOS "forgets" its stored values, you need the setup programme to restore them. And if the settimngs are lopst you haven't got a hard disk :-(. Some Toshiba laptops use a programme called tsetup.exe; my Tandy uses "setup380.com" |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 98380 | 2002-11-14 01:27:00 | Or if you’re still stuck; you could borrow/buy one of those handy 'Laptop HDD>Normal Size HDD' adaptors, and then just plug the 'Laptop HDD' into your desktop PC and get the files that way. Cheers Liam |
nz_liam (845) | ||
| 98381 | 2002-11-14 04:39:00 | thanks people - it is an IPC laptop circa 1992 - AMIBIOS by American Megatrends BIOS V2.20.9 base memory 640KB,external Memory 3072 KB..., 20MHz CPU Clock - yes it is an antique I've never surfed the net with it but it does possess in its HD all my short stories (which I didn't back up on floppies - I know DUMB!!)... ok so I switch this thing on and hit delete as it says to run set-up (otherwise I just hit the "put boot disc no HD" thing) when I get there I am greeted with this menu - STANDARD CMOS SETUP ADVANCED CMOS SETUP POWER MANAGEMENT SETUP AUTO CONFIGURATION WITH BIOS DEFAULTS AUTO CONFIGURATION WITH POWER ON DEFAULTS AUTO DETECT HARD DRIVE DISK HARD DISK UTILITY WRITE TO CMOS AND EXIT DO NOT WRITE TO CMOS AND EXIT (all movements are done with up/down/left/right and changes with PgUp/Pg Dwn a real pain) I've gone into Auto detect Hard drive and tried a few things yet still get the not detecting HD message when I switch it back on... the HD is 47, I changed it to other numbers with no success - what does this 47 value mean BTW? You can see I'm rather new to all this though I know it is something very simple... thanks for your patience... art |
artpepper (1321) | ||
| 98382 | 2002-11-14 04:52:00 | Type 47 is a HDD where you need to manually enter the cylinder and head info. (from ancient memory) It will have lost the info due to the CMOS backup battery going flat, so doesnt know about the HDD. If you can get access to the HDD, it may have the info on the label. Good news is the info is probably quite safe - if you can get access! |
godfather (25) | ||
| 98383 | 2002-11-14 05:06:00 | Does the Autodetect actually say it has found a disk type? Of so, you have to save the new setting before exiting the setup routine. If you don't, it still "doesn't know". ;-) | Graham L (2) | ||
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