Hey Guys, Great Site.

Hopefully someone much smarter than I can help me. The 10gb hard drive in my toshiba 2805-s301 die. I am trying to replace it with a 20 gb model mk2018gap. I have upgraded the bios to ver 2.0 . The old drive had no jumpers so I install the new one without a jumper. This is how the instructions say to install to make it a master. Still the laptop does not find the drive. Any Ideas?????

Thanks,

Bob33

You may need just go into the bios and have the HDD "redetect". But if you had your OS loaded on the other drive you may need to migrate the info over to the new drive first. If you just install it bare, you can probably just get to your bios and set "optimal defaults" and that should detect the new drive, but you would also need to reload your operating system with a bare drive. The key here is to make your updated bios to 'see' your new HDD. Providing the new bios actually does support the model you bought. And, since you did update the bios, the very first thing to do would be to set "optimized defaults" to re-set parameters. If you have problems still you may need to clear CMOS 'and' set optimal defaults, and have the bios re-detect your new HDD again. What I would do first is re-seat your IDE cable from the board (mainboard) to the new HDD on both ends. Check for any bent pins carefully. boot up and tap delete to get into the bios (or F2). Set optimized defaults. If you can 'get to the bios then it's a good sign to begin with. Then you would (with your restore CD in the CD drive and set first boot to CD, save info, exit the bios, and let it do it's thing. If this doesn't work try doing the opposite of what the manual for your new HDD said and (do) install a jumper in the master posiition and see what happens. If you have problems still you may need to clear CMOS 'and' set optimal defaults, and have the bios re-detect your new HDD again. Don't hesitate to look for a mom n' pop shop to help you if you need too. They usually have nice people and can help you get up and running and explain what they had to do to get your unit operational.

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