Help! NC2400 non system disk or disk error with replacement HD

I have a NC2400 with a 60g hard drive. And I just recently bought a Sandisk UATA 5000 32GB Solid State Disk. So I installed it but the problem is when it's SSD is in then the bios doesn't recognize my Optical Drive for some reason I can't figure out.

Because I can't boot off optical it just tries HD and I get "non system disk or disk error, press any key" loop and I can't pass the error. I was able to boot off a USB key which I had lying around with Win98se boot files. And I went to fdisk and I could see the drive, create partitions on it, and even format it. So I "think" the drive is probably okay. I even tried doing a format /S and rebooting to see if it would at least clear that "non system disk" error, but it didn't work.

Anyways, I'm going no where fast. Does anyone know what could be the issue with the BIOS not recognizing the optical drive? BTW, I have two optical drives for this machine (as i upgraded) and both have the issue with the ssd in... also I've tried several times to put the old drive back in, and then the bios recognizes the optical immediately.

Please help.

 

Well as an update I have isolated the problem to be that the bios does not recognize the optical drive at all when the sandisk ssd is installed. I managed to boot off a usb key and using another usb external hd i cloned the ORIGINAL hard drive image onto the ssd. I could then enter windows, but optical drive did not work in windows either.

This is quite perplexing as like I said when I swap back to ORIGINAL hard drive again optical disk does work both in bios and windows.

Perhaps this issue is specific to sandisk ssd drives? Or maybe HP has this thing where only HP hard drives work in the laptops? Anyone else have some input on the issue?

 

I do not think that the most probable cause is sandisk ssd specific problem. If I would hazard a guess I would say that your problems are due to incorrect master/slave/cable select settings on the drives and the optical unit. See if you can determine what setting your original disk had and then jumper the SSD with the same setting (i.e. master or cable select).

Did you experience significant performance enhancement from the SSD?

 

The performance enhancement seemed good. Noticeably faster loading, however, I don't have any benchmarks or much basis to go by because I didn't use it very long as I was preoccupied with the DVD conflict issue and sold my SSD as soon as I determined the issue to be unresolvable.

I believe you are 100% correct about the cause being a master/slave/cable select conflict. The crux of the issue is that the Sandisk SSD is factory set and has no jumper or other method of changing the setting. That's why I couldn't find a solution :S.

 

I have the exact same problem with my nc2400 and the same Sandisk 32gb ssd 1.8 hard drive. If you figured anything out, please share. I'm stumped!

 

This has no solution. Only way it could be fixed is if HP released a bios update to address the issue. You're about the 3rd or 4th person I've stumbled across who's faced this problem.

Everyone has ended up selling their drive and/or laptop.

 

Guys I don't think it's HP, or any other BIOS's fault...I bought the same drive and installed it on a VAIO VGNTXN-27N and it gave the same result...I have been researching for some time now and I 've come to conclusion that it's a master/slave/cable select issue. The problem is that my old hard drive a toshiba MK1011GAH is preset from the factory as "Master", Sandisk UATA 5000 on the other hand says that their drive is also preset as master: "The drive has been preconfigured at the factory to behave as a “Master”. It does not support “Master/Slave” configuration".
So it doesn't make any sense...the only thing that could be happening is that the Sandisk drive is changed via software/firmware as cable select...

P.S. Could these guys at Sandisk mean by "the drive does not support master/slave configuration" that the drive is "locked" and can not be installed on the same IDE Bus with another device??? Just guessing...

Anyone???

 

Not sure about the cable select reasoning. I spent about an hour on the phone with an HP engineer trying to find some answers to this. They didn't think the cable select issue was the reason--although I'm still suspicious. In the end HP told me the Sandisk ssd drive was simply incompatible.

So, I sold the Sandisk SSD, but kept my nc2400. I'm tempted to try an MTRON SSD but wary of the same problem... any one out there have success installing any ssd in a nc2400? Apparently the Mtrons work in the hp 2710p.

But I also read that the controller may be different in the nc2400 from the 2710p, and the ribbon that connects the hd splits bandwidth between the hd and cd-rom. Maybe this is what caused the ssd problem and the cd-rom to fail when the ssd was installed... still looking for answers here....

 

Hi Zilman, I know that if a device is set as master/slave it can only work properly with another connected on the same cable if the other follows the same master/slave setting. In simple words a HD is set as master the CD/DVD has to be slave, if the CD/DVD is set as cable select, it's a problem. I 'm still working on the problem...What I 've noticed when I benchmarked with HD TUNE the sandisk is that HD TUNE informs you on the drives internal temperature, while sandisk was on, there was no reading in HD TUNE. I don't know if that is because a pin that provides that information from the HD is not present in the SANDISK or if simply SSD drives don't have a thermal sensor...The only way to be sure is for someone who is using successfully the Sandisk drive with a CD/DVD drive (probably on a DELL system) can run the benchmark and tell us.There is definitely something going on there with either the master/slave/cable select setting or with the ribbon as you suggested although I tend to think more of the first...IS ANYONE READING FROM INSIDE SANDISK??? ...

 

I've just ordered one nc2400. I am sorry to read that there are problems when upgrading the hard drive with the sandisk ssd ... but has anybody tried to upgrade it with other hard drives ? like the samsung hs122jb or hs122jc maybe ? if yes did the DVD still work ?
thanks !

 

Well, I got brave and bought an Mtron ssd to try in my nc2400. And.... it worked, no problem at all. Faster, silent computing just like that.

It must be some incompatibility problem with sandisk drives and not the nc2400 itself. Which was what HP told me when I called them as well-- thumbs up for HP technical support.

In any case, if you're looking for an ssd for your nc2400, I found that the Mtron MOBI 3000 1.8" PATA 32GB works perfect.

 

Hey, i have an HP 2710p , after i had Kubuntu on my hardrive it does not seem to like Windows Cd anylonger , give's me an ''non system disk.....''

Is it possible to fix it my self ??

can anyone help me please , email me [email protected]

 

I have this working with a Runcore 64Gb Pro drive. I got the non-system disk error at first so tried the drive upside down and it worked. I then couldnt get my cloned drive to boot so i reinstalled the OS directly to the SSD and it worked

 

how is the performance with the runcore disk? do you notice any lag or freezes when you read/write alot to the disk?
I´m in the market for a new ssd för both my 2510p and my nc2400 and the runecore is at the top of the list but you are the first person i see using the runcore.

Are you happy with it? ANY problems? And if its not to much problem, do you think you could post some benchmarks? specificly the 4k reads.

/ Santzia