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Thread ID: 64017 2005-11-30 08:00:00 compaq lte 5100 bios wont recognise new hd Sam W (9332) Press F1
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408921 2005-11-30 08:00:00 Recently, I upgraded my compaq lte 5100's hard drive to a 5GB IBM hard drive but when it boots, the bios wont recognise the new hard drive. Is there some sort of update that will fix this problem?

Thanks
Sam W (9332)
408922 2005-11-30 08:08:00 The BIOS is most probably is too old to recognise the hdd.

If the system cant handle more than a 5 gb hdd.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
408923 2005-11-30 08:10:00 What type of upgrade would the computer need? New mother board? Sam W (9332)
408924 2005-11-30 08:31:00 What type of upgrade would the computer need? New mother board?

A BIOS update.

This (h18007.www1.hp.com) looks like the update site for your computer, and this (h18007.www1.hp.com) should fix the 4-5 gb limit.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
408925 2005-11-30 08:33:00 Is this a laptop?
edit: I see from speedy's post that it is
bartsdadhomer (80)
408926 2005-12-02 07:35:00 Yes it is a laptop.

The bios update added new features which is good, but it still wont recognise the IBM 5GB hard drive.
Sam W (9332)
408927 2005-12-02 08:33:00 Could be several things
1. Some older (and newer) brandname lappies (and desktops) will only recognise proprietary hardware.
i.e. a compaq will only run the exact same model of drive or another compatible compaq drive that came with the machine.
2. IBM were very proprietary when it came to hardware and even if the compaq will accept a hard drive other than the original, the IBM probably won't allow it to be read unless it in an IBM designed system.
3. You don't have the drive jumpered correctly
4. The drive is buggered
5. You could hook it up to a desktop with an adapter and test the drive and if it is detected, if it tests ok you could try creating a 2 or 3GB partition and then put it back in the lappy and see if it detects then

A bit of mucking around but it will discount or prove some of the above
bartsdadhomer (80)
408928 2005-12-03 00:44:00 1. Some older (and newer) brandname lappies (and desktops) will only recognise proprietary hardware.
i.e. a compaq will only run the exact same model of drive or another compatible compaq drive that came with the machine.
2. IBM were very proprietary when it came to hardware and even if the compaq will accept a hard drive other than the original, the IBM probably won't allow it to be read unless it in an IBM designed system. Eh? The only manufacturer which really tried that idea was Apple. Their formatting programme checked that the (SCSI) disk was one of the approved makes and models. They put the IDs in plain language in the programme. Of course there was very soon a user-provided patch to get rid of that nonsense. ;) Their floppiy formats were special and unique, but they even learned to be compatible there, too.

Try entering the disk parameters to the BIOS setup manually, rather than relying on the automatic thing.
If the laptop will boot from a CD, put in a live CD Linux. That will tell you what hardware is there.
Graham L (2)
408929 2005-12-03 01:34:00 The LTE series notebooks won't boot from CD, the bios doesn't support it.
These laptops came with the floppy disk version of Windows 95 preinstalled on the hard drive.
A utility program was provided that would allow you to create a single set of Windows 95 install floppy disks, after which the program would be disabled.

There is however a special cable that will let you connect the floppy drive to the parallel port, to allow the use of CD and floppy together if you can find one

I also stand by my statement that it is unlikely the IBM drive will be able to be used in the compaq, it will most likely have a 'hidden partition' that the compaq will not be able to read and will just ignore the drive completely

My bad, I didn't really explain myself very well in my previous post I was referring to IBM hard drives and not all IBM PC Hardware

I know what you're going through as I've been down this road many times
I sort of collect old laptops and am always trying to ressurect them with "other parts" if I can't get my hands on an original part, it can get very frustrating
But also rewarding when you see an old 90MHz lappy booting up after hours of fiddling
bartsdadhomer (80)
408930 2005-12-03 02:13:00 How does a hidden partition stop access to the whole drive? Compaq are old hands at hidden partitions, anyway. Just because a partition is, e.g., type 12 (Compaq) doesn't mean that the whole drive is unusable. At the worst, I'd just zap the partition table, with DEBUG ;) (or NDD) and do it properly.. Or even use IBM's own programme, zap.exe, which wipes the whole disk, partition tables and all. Graham L (2)
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