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    Replace ze4900 hard drive?

    Discussion in 'HP' started by ssnseawolf, Apr 24, 2008.

  1. ssnseawolf

    ssnseawolf Notebook Consultant

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    I recently got an old HP ze4900 with a bad hard drive (as concluded by Spinrite). I had an old, working, IBM R51 Thinkpad hard drive kicking around so I tried to replace it in the HP and the HP won't recognize the hard drive.

    Both are IDE, the IBM laptop inserts and seats well, but the ze4900's BIOS refuses to recognize it at all; as such any OS installs fails.

    Does HP use proprietary hard drives or is there any hoop I must jump through to make this work? The HP service manual provides no guidance.

    Any help would be very much appreciated.
     
  2. The_Observer

    The_Observer 9262 is the best:)

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    Did u check the master/slave settings?
     
  3. ssnseawolf

    ssnseawolf Notebook Consultant

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    Placed the jumper on the same pins as it was found on the HP laptop, still no dice.

    I wouldn't think it would make any difference, as the BIOS would still be able to see the drive. However, I'll try just about anything at the moment.

    Thanks for the suggestion, but no luck.
     
  4. bravo261

    bravo261 Notebook Geek

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    was there any hard drive caddy? it usually doesn't make a giant difference, but it can help with the connection being just right from being just off a hair