Dell Insiron 4000 Laptop hard drive 10gb failed, installed 120GB hard drive but it's not recognised in BIOS.

Derek wrote:
> Thanks everyone for your replies.
>
> I have tried a 30GB hard drive as suggested, this also was not
> recognised by the BIOS. It's from a 4 year old sony laptop so I
> had hopes it might work.
> I also tried installing Windows XP and Ubuntu, it won't work
> without a hard drive recognised in the BIOS.
>
> I can only guess that there is also a problem with the motherboard,
> or that modern hard drives are different to older ones.
>
> The service tag is 151150J.
> Dell Inspiron 4000, Windows ME, Pentium 3-700MHz, 128MB RAM, 10GB
> HDD, 56k modem.
>
> Is there anything else that I could try to repair this that is
> cheap?
> Is here a spec for the DELL that says the hard drives that it does
> support?

That particular system (bought in 2001, warranty ran out in May 2004) has
long outlived support. Dell doesn't even list parts for it anymore it
seems.

Here is the manual:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins4000/

I like this for hard disk issues:
"Click the Start button, point to Programs—> Accessories—> System Tools, and
then click ScanDisk."
haha

They do tell you how to remove the hard disk drive:
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...ve.htm#1025004

Beyond that....
It seems difficult to find laptop ATA-100 drives that fit the Inspiron 4000
(likely because of age.) Any I did found cost about $150 - and were out of
stock. The $399 laptop I saw the other day seemed like a wiser choice.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Thanks again everyone. It looks like unless I happen to see a 10-30GB hard
drive from 2001-2003 at a car boot sale then this laptop is going in the bin
that is ebay spares or repair.

Thanks all of you.



"Shenan Stanley" <newshelper@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:u10Baf0EJHA.768@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Derek wrote:
>> Thanks everyone for your replies.
>>
>> I have tried a 30GB hard drive as suggested, this also was not
>> recognised by the BIOS. It's from a 4 year old sony laptop so I
>> had hopes it might work.
>> I also tried installing Windows XP and Ubuntu, it won't work
>> without a hard drive recognised in the BIOS.
>>
>> I can only guess that there is also a problem with the motherboard,
>> or that modern hard drives are different to older ones.
>>
>> The service tag is 151150J.
>> Dell Inspiron 4000, Windows ME, Pentium 3-700MHz, 128MB RAM, 10GB
>> HDD, 56k modem.
>>
>> Is there anything else that I could try to repair this that is
>> cheap?
>> Is here a spec for the DELL that says the hard drives that it does
>> support?
>
> That particular system (bought in 2001, warranty ran out in May 2004) has
> long outlived support. Dell doesn't even list parts for it anymore it
> seems.
>
> Here is the manual:
> http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins4000/
>
> I like this for hard disk issues:
> "Click the Start button, point to Programs-> Accessories-> System Tools,
> and then click ScanDisk."
> haha
>
> They do tell you how to remove the hard disk drive:
> http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...ve.htm#1025004
>
> Beyond that....
> It seems difficult to find laptop ATA-100 drives that fit the Inspiron
> 4000 (likely because of age.) Any I did found cost about $150 - and were
> out of stock. The $399 laptop I saw the other day seemed like a wiser
> choice.
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
> MS-MVP
> --
> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>