Laptop Drive problem - help please

Mussels · Feb 26, 2012, 11:12 PM

Short version:

I have a HP DV6304TX laptop. the primary sata port is dead, and no power goes to a hard drive in that slot.

the DVD drive works fine however, to launch an OS or bootable CD/DVD.

What i've done is acquired an adaptor to let me put a 2.5" HDD in the ODD bay and used a USB stick to install windows 7 - and it worked fine.

the problem is that the laptops BIOS refuses to see the hard drive as bootable in the DVD bay.

Now it DOES have an SD card slot, so if i can get the bootloader onto that, i can use that as the boot device and load the OS off this hard drive. does anyone know how to do that?

streetfighter 2 · Feb 26, 2012, 11:54 PM

Howdy Mussels, long time no see. I see your avatar hasn't changed much

Could you use something like plop boot manager?

You might be able to get it to load from an SD card using plop boot instructions:

Quote:

Download the current boot manager [64]plpbt-5.0.10.zip. Extract it to
get the floppy disk image plpbt.img.

DOS: You can use [65]diskimg.com with diskimg -d a -w plpbt.img

Windows: Write the disk image with the program [66]rawwritewin to the
floppy disk

Linux: dd if=plpbt.img of=/dev/fd0

Dunno if it'll work, but it is easy to try.

Personally I'd grab a soldering iron and get to fixing the primary drive connection.

Mussels · Feb 26, 2012, 11:56 PM

the primary port has no visible damage, so i cant fix it. its just that the damned BIOS wont see a hard drive in the DVD bay, while it shows the DVD drive itself fine. stupid limitations.

turns out the SD reader isnt bootable, but a regular USB stick is. so thats the plan for now.

will try your suggestions.

temp02 · Feb 27, 2012, 12:21 AM

Assuming you can later mount the HDD drive connected on the ODD slot, how about installing GRUB on the USB flash drive and set it to chain load the Windows install on the HDD?

Mussels · Feb 27, 2012, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by temp02

Assuming you can later mount the HDD drive connected on the ODD slot, how about installing GRUB on the USB flash drive and set it to chain load the Windows install on the HDD?

that could work, i'm just new to alternate boot loaders. the one streetfigher linked to is umm... complicated. i'll see how grub goes.

edit: the links from that page dont seem to work, and they mention files from other sources without links or even naming them.
edit 2: theres ANOTHER link down lower, for windows users XD
edit 3: and that method requires you to boot into windows, which i cant do.

streetfighter 2 · Feb 27, 2012, 02:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mussels

that could work, i'm just new to alternate boot loaders. the one streetfigher linked to is umm... complicated. i'll see how grub goes.

It's not that bad, but I've never tried it with loading onto a USB or SD so I don't know if it will work.

Just follow the instructions here. In brief:

Format USB drive as fat32
Download zip
Copy plpbt.bin to the FAT formatted drive.
Run "plpmkboot" with the USB drive letter, ie:
Code:
```
plpmkboot F:
```

Let me know if it works

Mussels · Feb 27, 2012, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by streetfighter 2

It's not that bad, but I've never tried it with loading onto a USB or SD so I don't know if it will work.

Just follow the instructions here. In brief:

Format USB drive as fat32
Download zip
Copy plpbt.bin to the FAT formatted drive.
Run "plpmkboot" with the USB drive letter, ie:
Code:
```
plpmkboot F:
```

Let me know if it works

step 4 is what throws me off. where/when do i run that? is there an exe or batch file i do that with?

edit: found the exe hiding in a folder. will figure it out.

edit 2: it loaded, but god is this a weird manager. half the time it sits on a blank screen with a blinking A, and a menu flashes up. so far no luck booting windows from it.

edit 3: well duh, i formatted the drive earlier and didnt install windows on it. no wonder it didnt load into windows XD doing that now.

Mussels · Feb 27, 2012, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by streetfighter 2

It's not that bad, but I've never tried it with loading onto a USB or SD so I don't know if it will work.

Just follow the instructions here. In brief:

Format USB drive as fat32
Download zip
Copy plpbt.bin to the FAT formatted drive.
Run "plpmkboot" with the USB drive letter, ie:
Code:
```
plpmkboot F:
```

Let me know if it works

it worked! bahahaha. the USB shows as "HDA" while the drive is "HDB" so all i need to now is automate it loading from Hard Drive B.

Mussels · Jun 22, 2012, 01:54 AM

bumping because i got around to repairing the CPU fan, and now this laptop works just fine

Feb 26, 2012, 11:12 PM	#1
Mussels Doctor Moderator Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Bendigo, Australia (NOT THE USA) Posts: 34,559 (10.96/day) Thanks: 3,700 Thanked 8,693 Times in 6,392 Posts System Specs	Laptop Drive problem - help please Short version: I have a HP DV6304TX laptop. the primary sata port is dead, and no power goes to a hard drive in that slot. the DVD drive works fine however, to launch an OS or bootable CD/DVD. What i've done is acquired an adaptor to let me put a 2.5" HDD in the ODD bay and used a USB stick to install windows 7 - and it worked fine. the problem is that the laptops BIOS refuses to see the hard drive as bootable in the DVD bay. Now it DOES have an SD card slot, so if i can get the bootloader onto that, i can use that as the boot device and load the OS off this hard drive. does anyone know how to do that? __________________ Edumacational thread about PC Audio My external HDD's.5x samsung 1TB + 2x Seagate 1.5TB = 8 TB external storage 32 Bit OS vs 64 bit OS information How to get hardware accelerated H264 playback (DXVA) Netbook Owners United!

System Name:	Real Men use Real Cores!
Processor:	Phenom II x6 1090T: 3600Mhz undervolted (NB+HT at 2.6)
Motherboard:	Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5
Cooling:	Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme (Lapped + ducted)
Memory:	8GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 - 1600Mhz 7-7-7-20 1.65V
Video Card:	AMD Radeon 5870 1GB Crossfire
Hard Disk:	Intel 520 SSD (120GB), 500GB OS + 18TB of storage (mostly external)
Optical Drive:	Samsung Blu Ray drive (SH-B083A)
CRT/LCD Model:	23.6" Samsung 1080P / Samsung 40" HDTV - 1360x768P
Case:	Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced (non window)
Sound Card:	Auzentech X-Mystique (Logitech Z5500D + sennheiser HD555 + RE2's)
PSU:	Corsair HX 1000W
Software:	Windows 7 Ultimate x64 - kaspersky internet security 2013
Benchmarks:	Laptop: AMD A6 APU 1.4GHz @2.2GHz quad core + APU crossfire.Iphone 5, Samsung galaxy tab 2 7"

System Name:	Primary Rig
Processor:	Phenom II X4 B50 @ 3.7GHz
Motherboard:	Biostar TA790GX 128M
Cooling:	Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120mm , 6x120mm, MOS-C1
Memory:	2x2GB Kingston HyperX 1066 @ 800 4-4-4-12
Video Card:	Sapphire HD 5830 800/1000 @ 885/1225
Hard Disk:	320GB, 400GB, 500GB, 1.5TB
CRT/LCD Model:	Hannspree HF259
Case:	CM 690
PSU:	OCZ 850W
Benchmarks:	3Dmark06: 18545/5219 CPU Mark 7.0: 3911.2 Cinebench R10: 11826/3359 x264 HD 2.0: 75.6/23.9

Feb 26, 2012, 11:56 PM	#3
Mussels Doctor Moderator Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Bendigo, Australia (NOT THE USA) Posts: 34,559 (10.96/day) Thanks: 3,700 Thanked 8,693 Times in 6,392 Posts System Specs	the primary port has no visible damage, so i cant fix it. its just that the damned BIOS wont see a hard drive in the DVD bay, while it shows the DVD drive itself fine. stupid limitations. turns out the SD reader isnt bootable, but a regular USB stick is. so thats the plan for now. will try your suggestions. __________________ Edumacational thread about PC Audio My external HDD's.5x samsung 1TB + 2x Seagate 1.5TB = 8 TB external storage 32 Bit OS vs 64 bit OS information How to get hardware accelerated H264 playback (DXVA) Netbook Owners United!

System Name:	Real Men use Real Cores!
Processor:	Phenom II x6 1090T: 3600Mhz undervolted (NB+HT at 2.6)
Motherboard:	Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5
Cooling:	Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme (Lapped + ducted)
Memory:	8GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 - 1600Mhz 7-7-7-20 1.65V
Video Card:	AMD Radeon 5870 1GB Crossfire
Hard Disk:	Intel 520 SSD (120GB), 500GB OS + 18TB of storage (mostly external)
Optical Drive:	Samsung Blu Ray drive (SH-B083A)
CRT/LCD Model:	23.6" Samsung 1080P / Samsung 40" HDTV - 1360x768P
Case:	Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced (non window)
Sound Card:	Auzentech X-Mystique (Logitech Z5500D + sennheiser HD555 + RE2's)
PSU:	Corsair HX 1000W
Software:	Windows 7 Ultimate x64 - kaspersky internet security 2013
Benchmarks:	Laptop: AMD A6 APU 1.4GHz @2.2GHz quad core + APU crossfire.Iphone 5, Samsung galaxy tab 2 7"

Feb 27, 2012, 12:21 AM	#4
temp02 Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 490 (0.32/day) Thanks: 0 Thanked 171 Times in 158 Posts	Assuming you can later mount the HDD drive connected on the ODD slot, how about installing GRUB on the USB flash drive and set it to chain load the Windows install on the HDD?

Jun 22, 2012, 01:54 AM	#9
Mussels Doctor Moderator Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Bendigo, Australia (NOT THE USA) Posts: 34,559 (10.96/day) Thanks: 3,700 Thanked 8,693 Times in 6,392 Posts System Specs	bumping because i got around to repairing the CPU fan, and now this laptop works just fine __________________ Edumacational thread about PC Audio My external HDD's.5x samsung 1TB + 2x Seagate 1.5TB = 8 TB external storage 32 Bit OS vs 64 bit OS information How to get hardware accelerated H264 playback (DXVA) Netbook Owners United!

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