Windows won't install on new hard drive of Sony TZ. Help please.

Hey all,

This thread can be for the success or failure of upgrading the 120gb Toshiba MK1214GAH hard drive that originally came with my TZ to the new Toshiba 240gb MK2431GAH.

Everything's gone very smoothly, and I have the new drive installed, no problems at all with the ZIF ribbon cable.

Problem is that BIOS and thus my windows 7 install is not seeing the hard disk. BIOS reports no presence of a hard drive at all. Am I missing something here? Called Toshiba and there should be no drivers necessary for the hard drive to be seen.

Could it be the Sony TZ BIOS that needs to be updated? Don't see any new updates though, and didn't think this would be a problem since many others have changed their hard drives with all different sorts (SSDs, etc) and haven't reported any problems with recognition.

If anyone's got any ideas, please let me know! Would like to try you guys first before calling Sony for fear of voiding the warranty. Thanks!

 

Guys,

Ok, for anyone working with ZIF connectors on these 1.8" drives, there's a little black plastic flap that has to snap down in order to secure the ribbon. Once I did that it showed up just fine...

*Still having a problem though.* I can now boot into the Windows 7 install from USB, windows setup sees the drive as 223gb and can format it, but then gives me the following error:

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu."

Well, the hdd shows up fine in the Sony BIOS, and there are no options at all for it. Called Sony and I am running the latest BIOS for my TZ 270N, version R0081N7. Sony tech support says that this BIOS should be able to see a bigger hard drive no problem.

Anybody run into this problem, and any advice? thanks...

 

Have you tried partitioning the hard drive first? Try two partitions.

 

tried that still get same error... I'm stuck. Do I need to do anything to the MBR of the new disk?

Alright guys, Been at this for 11 hours straight now. The hard drive is brand new, so although there may be a problem with it, I think it is less likely.

I'm thinking more now that maybe there is some BIOS limitation on the TZ. Has anyone encountered this? I've seen all the threads of ppl putting in SSDs, so I didn't think compatibility would be an issue, but maybe it is.

The BIOS sees Hard Drive 0 240gb. But on boot up I do get an "0200: Failure Fixed Disk 0". Ordinarily I think this means a toasted drive, but again it's brand new straight outta the blister pack. Windows 7 RC Inslaller also sees the drive, can partition and format it. But after formatting it says it still can't be installed, and that this computer may not support booting from this hard drive and to check in BIOS that the controller is enabled. I've tried a Windows XP install disk, and it does not see the drive at all.

I'd really appreciate some help, have reached my limit I think. If someone can confirm for me that it's a BIOS issue, then I'll give up. Otherwise I'd like to keep trying.

Could someone please help me on this?

Does anyone know of a reason that the 240gb version of the Toshiba hard drive will not work on the TZ?

Seatools says the hard drive is alright, SMART is clean and passes all tests. No other program can see it though... not fdisk, mbrtool, etc.

 

I'll move this to another forum, maybe someone can help you there.

 

Thanks Phil... anybody?

 

Interesting problem you are having.

The MK2431GAH you have has a very low power consumption, most likely as low or lower than your previous harddrive.

Since your drive is PATA in the ZIF format, your drive maybe running in ATA-6 or ATA-7 mode. You may be able to change it to ATA-5 mode with a firmware diagnostic program

Toshiba does not provide any software to change the firmware settings on your drive
Hitachi has a program called Hitachi Tool which allows the user to change the speed of the drive by changing the ATA - X speed
Western Digital also has a program called WD Lifeguard. You should be able to change the firmware with that.

Most PATA mobile harddrives have a jumper to change between Slave and Master mode. I have never used a 1.8" drive, so I do not know if there is a jumper or not.
If there is try changing the jumper settings to see if the drive will be more cooperative.

K-TRON

 

dgurjala, Registered just now to say that we're having similar problems. My notebook is a LG-P100. I'm also upgrading the MK1011GAH that came with it to a MK2431GAH.

I'm getting the same "0200" message that you're getting. I believe that my MK2431GAH is fine because it works OK as a USB drive using a 1.8 LIF/ZIF enclosure I got. BIOS detects the MK2431GAH fine - even reports the correct number of sectors in the primary drive details screen. But it still generates the "0200" message.

K-TRON, the drive has no jumpers.

 

You can add me to the list.

I have a Sony Vaio UX VGN-380N and upgraded the MK1011GAH to a MK2431GAH.

Same problem with the new drive. I can USB boot and see the drive, format it etc, but BIOS wont recognise it as a boot disk. And Windows 7 wont load on to it saying 'Bios won't recognise'.

What a pain. I agree that it could be an ATA7 issue with Sony Bios. A disk fimware change to limit MK2431GAH to a legacy PATA might work. Anybody had luck here?

Otherwise I have a nice 1.8" 240GB for sale

 

This is really too bad... any progress from anyone? It seems this would be a common problem as this newer format moves toward becoming the standard for larger hard drives. There's got to be a motivation for coming up with a solution!

To echo lelievre12, anyone have luck switching to ATA-5 as K-TRON suggested?

 

I saw a post that questioned whether there was a 160GB logical limit to the Sony disk controller. Djargula did you try partitioning the new drive?

I am skeptical partitioning will work because when I put the MK2431GAH in an external USB case, the same Vaio can see and use it fine. 240GB no problem.

This is weird. I will try scanning some Japanese posts. They love UMPC's.

 

Yes, I did try partitioning, but still got the 0200 error on bootup. Windows 7 RC can see the drive and partition it during the opening setup screen, but then having finished the partition and format says it cannot be installed because the BIOS is not reporting the hard disk as a bootable drive.

It seems that all things still point to the BIOS not being compatible with the drive, and the 4096byte/sector format is the only reason I've been able to come up with.

Thanks for scanning the Japanese posts, that's a great idea! Please keep me updated!!!

 

Hi,

From what I have heard the MK2431GAH only supports ATA-3 and ATA-4. I m not too clear on why this would mean it doesnt work, maybe someone can explain it better on why it wouldnt work because its ATA-3/4...?

It will work with an iPod though.

 

Hi There,
I wanted too to upgrade with this 240 Gb disk on my TZ 11 but I am afraid to order because of your posts. Any news on this ?
Thanks
Stephane

 

I have contacted Toshiba to ask about this drive and the vaio tz, here is the reply :
thank you for contacting the Toshiba Storage Device Division of Toshiba Europe.
******************
The MK2431GAH has a 4KB Block Size (physical) - not to be confused with the logical Block Size, which can be selected when formatting a HDD.
The Block Size of the MK2431GAH is 4KB and physical, and it is unchangeable defined on the platter.
This makes the HDD incompatible for the use in a Notebook or PC application. It is for the use in consumer electronic (CE) applications only.
******************

Awaiting reply from Sony too.

 

Seems wierd that the 4kb Physical is a problem when the same 'incompatible' Sony notebook can read the MK2431GAH drive easily once booted. It just wont boot from this drive becuase of the reported error. Also load the MK2431GAH into a USB case and it works perfectly.
Hmm.

.

 

would not be possible to have a linux boot manager on sd or ms duo card and vista on the HD ?

 

I ran into the same problem, Ive even tried to go into the drive and boot it with acronis and and change the block size to 512.. that didnt work and i even set it as the active partition.. Also i downloaded the hitachi software and it shows up as dma mode 5... so im stumped anyone want to chime in and try to make these drives work before i stick it back on ebay

 

This is all too bad. Looks like no one has had any luck since I first started this thread.

Still looking for options to move to a bigger hard drive from the 120G in my Sony TZ. If anyone's got any ideas, would be great to hear from you! Are all of us with 1.8" PATA drives really stuck at a max of 120G (Toshiba 1214GAH)?

 

Can you say boot up Linux from a USB drive, then see if you can see the data on the 240GB Toshiba? Try using hdparm to ensure it's running UDMA5 mode (it should be) as shown here. Intel ICHxx I/O interface maxes out at ATA100/UDMA5.

 

Hey everyone...any new update on this?...upgrading a TZ now and trying to determine what I should buy...it's got a 100G HD in there...the MK1011GAH

any help would greatly be appreciated....

anyone tried one of these on the TZ series?...does it work...will it be compatible...will it be recognized by the bios?

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/SP...e-ssd--80000AD6-1246485054.jsp#specifications

 

I got the Toshiba MK2431GAH HDD1905 240GB 1.8" hard drive, and tried installing it in my Vaio TZ27GN.

The Bios failed to boot from the drive, giving the "0200: Failure Fixed Disk 0" error. Even when I cloned my existing Toshiba MK1011GAH HDD1789 100GB drive contents to the new drive, the Bios could not boot from it.

The drive works fine when installed in a USB enclosure as a non-bootable external drive.

So basically this iPod specific drive will not work not work with laptop PCs (due to the physical 4KB Block Size), I'm guessing even with new firmware for both the drive and the Vaio TZ27GN, it still would not work.

Interestingly though, there is one company on ebay who claim/demonstrate to have the MK2431GAH installed and working on the Macbook Air:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...61#description

Why would the MK2431GAH work on the Macbook Air - do Apple computers have a different Bios to PCs?