Hard drive only works in Compaq??

D

David W. Richardson

Chapelgrove Films
I'm trying to take a hard drive from a Compaq Presario computer and put it into a Sony VAIO.

When I do this, the VAIO hangs during the POST portion and refuses to boot. BIOS sees the drive, but doesn't seem able to function with it. The drive works just fine in the Compaq.

I've tried every jumper setting, including no jumper at all. Tried both primary and secondary IDE connectors. Nothing I do gets VAIO to accept this hard drive.

I do realize that Windows may not load on the drive due to the difference in hardware configurations, but I'm not even getting that far.

Is it possible that Compaq has figured out a way to make a hard drive that will only work in their computers??? I've never heard of such a thing.

Advice?
 
It's a Quantum Fireball, but there are so many stickers with numbers on this thing that I can't tell what the model number is. Some of them are as follows:

LC 30.OAT
188622-001
CT:2366201LEJZ891
LC30A492 REV 01 - A A010F

Any of that useful???
 
Am looking, it's definitely very old.

If it comes up in the bios, what does it say the hard drive is?
 
In the olden times you would have to configure drive info in the BIOS, or at least boot to BIOS and select "detect HDD" option. Not sure whether you still need to do this with modern BIOSes.

Quantum Fireball? 500MB? 1.2GB? 3GB? This is like a 10-year old computer, is it?
 
On Modern Bios's its all automatic, they've taken the fun out of it. XD

All I've found out is that's a 30GB so the top of the range in its day.
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
I'm trying to take a hard drive from a Compaq Presario computer and put it into a Sony VAIO.

When I do this, the VAIO hangs during the POST portion and refuses to boot.
Click to expand...

To clarify, are you trying to take a DATA (secondary) drive out of the Compaq and put it into a VAIO, or are you trying to take the BOOT (primary) drive and boot a different computer with it?

There should be no problem taking a DATA drive and moving it from one computer to another. I (and thousands of other people) do it all the time.

However moving the BOOT drive from one computer to another (even another computer of the same make and model) has almost no chance of booting successfully. There are hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of things that get configured for the exact hardware platform when you install MS Windows. It is not reasonable to expect Windows to boot on a completely different computer.

The only way this has been known to work is to go back to the original computer and REMOVE and RESET everything, knocking Windows back into the stone-age where there are NO graphics, NO peripherals of any kind. That will FORCE windows to reset everything when it boots up on a new/different hardware platform.

I would not recommend doing this even if you CAN get it to work. So much better to start with a fresh disk and install everything from scratch. I do this on some of my Windows machines as a "spring cleaning". Save all the data files, then re-format the C: drive and re-install Windows and all the applications that I really need and use.
 
I am moving the boot drive.

And as I said, I expected to have issues with Windows trying to load. But it never even gets that far. BIOS seems to recognize the drive, but it hangs during the POST portion of booting. No error msg or anything, it just stops. That's what has me baffled.

I have no problem reinstalling everything, but I'm loathe to wipe the hard drive if the VAIO isn't even going to see it. If the VAIO can't use the drive, then I can't reload it.
 
Is the drive format something that the motherboard/BIOS recognizes? Does the drive still boot on the original system?

Unless the drive is broken, it should be recognized by any motherboard/BIOS. At the physical/electrical level. I can't imagine a scenario where the VAIO "can't use the drive."

But if the drive is formatted with something the MB/BIOS doesn't recognize, then I would expect the symptoms you are describing.

I typically take those kinds of discs and assign them as DATA (secondary) volumes on a new system, but with a new BOOT drive. That way you can have the best of both worlds. A fresh OS build on the new system, but still retaining access to the data on the old drive.
 
It's formatted with Windows XP. I can't imagine that any PC wouldn't recognize that. But if it didn't, I would expect the non-formatted disc error or "no operating system" error to come up.

The VAIO had a drive in it before with XP loaded, and it ran fine until it crashed. (Highly doubt the hardware was at fault in that.) The drive from the Compaq runs fine in the Compaq.

I don't have any other boot drive to put into the VAIO. Wish I did.

It's a mystery, that's for sure.
 
Windows XP is not a disk format. It is an operating system. Your drive is probably formatted with FAT16 or maybe FAT32, or maybe NTFS.

What makes you think the VAIO hard drive was NOT the cause of the crash? What happened to the VAIO hard drive? What happens if you connect the VAIO drive to the Compaq? None of the symptoms you have mentioned here would eliminate VAIO hardware failure.
 
I'm fairly sure it's NTFS. Definitely that or FAT32. Don't have it here to check.

I can put the old drive from the VAIO into the Compaq as a data drive and access the files on it. If I try booting with that drive in the Compaq, I get "non-system disk or disk error", which typically means the boot sector of the drive is trashed.
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
I can put the old drive from the VAIO into the Compaq as a data drive and access the files on it. If I try booting with that drive in the Compaq, I get "non-system disk or disk error", which typically means the boot sector of the drive is trashed.
Click to expand...

All the evidence points to hardware failure on the VAIO motherboard.

Note that the boot sector on the VAIO drive can be repaired.
 
Richard Crowley said:
All the evidence points to hardware failure on the VAIO motherboard.
Click to expand...

You may be right. But without getting a new drive, I have no way to test that theory.


Note that the boot sector on the VAIO drive can be repaired.
Click to expand...

No longer an option, I'm afraid. But the bottom line is there's no good reason why the drive that boots in the Compaq wouldn't at least boot and try to load Windows on any other PC.
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
But the bottom line is there's no good reason why the drive that boots in the Compaq wouldn't at least boot and try to load Windows on any other PC.
Click to expand...

If you tried it on any OTHER PC you didn't mention it here. You said you had only the VAIO to try it on. So have you tried it on OTHER PCs? What exactly were the symptoms?
 
Get the "Ultimate Boot CD" burn it to CD and boot from there...lots of tools for checking/formatting hard disks.
 
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