Netbook Harddrive

[Frederick]

Yesterday, my daughter just gave me a relatively unused Dell 'Inspiron
Mini 10' Netbook. I installed XP SP3 on it with a few apps. It
worked beautifully after I downloaded and installed the required
drivers. Played a Youtube clip just fine.

When I turned it on this AM, it would not boot. Instead, I got the
following error messages:

PXE-E61: Media test failure. check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM.
Operating System not found.

I used F2 to look at the BIOS and it looked ok, except I saw no hard
drive. I thought that curious. Since the boot sequence was set to
start with the hard drive. I changed the boot to start with my XP
installation CD, and it took, but then it said there was NO HARD
DRIVE! Makes some sense since there is a message above to 'check
cable'.

Now then, I have taken a few laptops apart, and have removed
batteries, wi-fi cards, RAM, and mini hard drives. So I tried to find
the hard drive in this netbook, figuring maybe it got disconnected
somehow. I can find it nowhere, even though I can find the wi-fi card
and the battery. So I guess it is not readily removable. I removed
the mini-screws on the netbook case bottom, but the bottom doesn't
seem to want to be removed - I figure the hard drive is buried
there-under.

I am looking for suggestions. I have no idea why this all happened
this AM - especially since I played the Youtube clip on it yesterday
afternoon.

Bummer

Big Fred.

 

[Paul]

Yesterday, my daughter just gave me a relatively unused Dell 'Inspiron
Mini 10' Netbook. I installed XP SP3 on it with a few apps. It
worked beautifully after I downloaded and installed the required
drivers. Played a Youtube clip just fine.

When I turned it on this AM, it would not boot. Instead, I got the
following error messages:

PXE-E61: Media test failure. check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM.
Operating System not found.

I used F2 to look at the BIOS and it looked ok, except I saw no hard
drive. I thought that curious. Since the boot sequence was set to
start with the hard drive. I changed the boot to start with my XP
installation CD, and it took, but then it said there was NO HARD
DRIVE! Makes some sense since there is a message above to 'check
cable'.

Now then, I have taken a few laptops apart, and have removed
batteries, wi-fi cards, RAM, and mini hard drives. So I tried to find
the hard drive in this netbook, figuring maybe it got disconnected
somehow. I can find it nowhere, even though I can find the wi-fi card
and the battery. So I guess it is not readily removable. I removed
the mini-screws on the netbook case bottom, but the bottom doesn't
seem to want to be removed - I figure the hard drive is buried
there-under.

I am looking for suggestions. I have no idea why this all happened
this AM - especially since I played the Youtube clip on it yesterday
afternoon.

Bummer

Big Fred.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1010/en/sm/hdd.htm#wp1184863

"1. Follow the procedures in Before You Begin.
2. Remove the battery (see Removing the Battery).
3. Remove the keyboard (see Removing the Keyboard).
4. Remove the screw that secures the hard drive assembly to the computer base."

So one screw holds the drive tray in place. Then more screws must be
removed, to separate the hard drive from the metal tray.

The picture on that page, looks a bit similar to the metal tray used
for my laptop SATA drive. There could be a SATA connector they're not
showing in the picture.

In this picture, you can see the 7 pin data and 15 pin power connectors.
This connector slides into the mating connector in the laptop. And
up to four screws may be used, to fasten the 2.5" drive, to the
metal tray provided by the laptop manufacturer.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/22-136-391-S04?$S640W$

I think I've used standard desktop SATA cables, when slaving
my laptop drive to my desktop computer for maintenance/backup.
Only some of the smaller 1.8" SSD drives, use the "mini" connector
which is a pain to find adapters for. If you have a SATA desktop,
and a SATA power cable, you could be all set to slave it up
on your desktop.

Have fun,
Paul

 

[Frederick]

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1010/en/sm/hdd.htm#wp1184863

"1. Follow the procedures in Before You Begin.
2. Remove the battery (see Removing the Battery).
3. Remove the keyboard (see Removing the Keyboard).
4. Remove the screw that secures the hard drive assembly to the computer base."

So one screw holds the drive tray in place. Then more screws must be
removed, to separate the hard drive from the metal tray.

The picture on that page, looks a bit similar to the metal tray used
for my laptop SATA drive. There could be a SATA connector they're not
showing in the picture.

In this picture, you can see the 7 pin data and 15 pin power connectors.
This connector slides into the mating connector in the laptop. And
up to four screws may be used, to fasten the 2.5" drive, to the
metal tray provided by the laptop manufacturer.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/22-136-391-S04?$S640W$

I think I've used standard desktop SATA cables, when slaving
my laptop drive to my desktop computer for maintenance/backup.
Only some of the smaller 1.8" SSD drives, use the "mini" connector
which is a pain to find adapters for. If you have a SATA desktop,
and a SATA power cable, you could be all set to slave it up
on your desktop.

Have fun,
Paul

Thanks Paul Looks to be a major undertaking.

Big Fred

 

[Frederick]

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1010/en/sm/hdd.htm#wp1184863

"1. Follow the procedures in Before You Begin.
2. Remove the battery (see Removing the Battery).
3. Remove the keyboard (see Removing the Keyboard).
4. Remove the screw that secures the hard drive assembly to the computer base."

So one screw holds the drive tray in place. Then more screws must be
removed, to separate the hard drive from the metal tray.

The picture on that page, looks a bit similar to the metal tray used
for my laptop SATA drive. There could be a SATA connector they're not
showing in the picture.

In this picture, you can see the 7 pin data and 15 pin power connectors.
This connector slides into the mating connector in the laptop. And
up to four screws may be used, to fasten the 2.5" drive, to the
metal tray provided by the laptop manufacturer.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/22-136-391-S04?$S640W$

I think I've used standard desktop SATA cables, when slaving
my laptop drive to my desktop computer for maintenance/backup.
Only some of the smaller 1.8" SSD drives, use the "mini" connector
which is a pain to find adapters for. If you have a SATA desktop,
and a SATA power cable, you could be all set to slave it up
on your desktop.

Have fun,
Paul

Before I went any further, I used the guide you cited above to
satisfy myself that I could find the hidden hard drive and that it was
in fact not loose.

Well guess what. It was loose all right. The single securing-screw
was nowhere to be seen. As a result, the drive had dislodged from its
contacts completely. The screw is not inside the case that I could
find. I re-seated the drive, secured it with a screw, put the netbook
back together, fired it up - and lo I am back looking at my XP desktop
screen.

Have to wonder how all that happened. Should I ask my daughter?
Nooooo.

Thanks for your great help. I can always depend on you.

Big Fred

 

[Paul]

Before I went any further, I used the guide you cited above to
satisfy myself that I could find the hidden hard drive and that it was
in fact not loose.

Well guess what. It was loose all right. The single securing-screw
was nowhere to be seen. As a result, the drive had dislodged from its
contacts completely. The screw is not inside the case that I could
find. I re-seated the drive, secured it with a screw, put the netbook
back together, fired it up - and lo I am back looking at my XP desktop
screen.

Have to wonder how all that happened. Should I ask my daughter?
Nooooo.

Thanks for your great help. I can always depend on you.

Big Fred

You're welcome.

What happens to screws like that, is one of the great mysteries
of the universe.

Paul

 

[GMAN]

Thanks Paul Looks to be a major undertaking.

Big Fred

Not really. All you are doinbg is trying to see if the laptop hard drive is
still functioning. Once you verify that you can access the drive on your
desktop PC, you know you can just place it back into the laptop. The most
likely thing then is the windows boot files or somehing got damaged and a
reinstall from your recovery cd is in order.

 

[Frederick]

If you do find that screw, would you be so good as to grab some of my
stray socks?

''

:<)

Big Fred