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Laptop Drive problem - help please

Mussels

Mussels

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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

streetfighter 2

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

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:
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
Click to expand...

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

Mussels

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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.
 
Mussels

Mussels

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System Name Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
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Motherboard Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory 2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s) Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage 2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s) Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) | Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) | Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s) Logitech G560 | Corsair Void pro RGB |Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores Nyooom.
temp02 said:
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?
Click to expand...

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

streetfighter 2

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Mussels said:
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.
Click to expand...
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:
  1. Format USB drive as fat32
  2. Download zip
  3. Copy plpbt.bin to the FAT formatted drive.
  4. Run "plpmkboot" with the USB drive letter, ie:
    Code: 
    plpmkboot F:

Let me know if it works :D
 
Mussels

Mussels

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System Specs
System Name Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory 2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s) Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage 2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s) Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) | Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) | Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s) Logitech G560 | Corsair Void pro RGB |Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores Nyooom.
streetfighter 2 said:
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:
  1. Format USB drive as fat32
  2. Download zip
  3. Copy plpbt.bin to the FAT formatted drive.
  4. Run "plpmkboot" with the USB drive letter, ie:
    Code: 
    plpmkboot F:

Let me know if it works :D
Click to expand...

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.
 
Last edited:
Mussels

Mussels

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System Specs
System Name Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory 2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s) Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage 2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s) Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) | Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) | Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s) Logitech G560 | Corsair Void pro RGB |Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores Nyooom.
streetfighter 2 said:
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:
  1. Format USB drive as fat32
  2. Download zip
  3. Copy plpbt.bin to the FAT formatted drive.
  4. Run "plpmkboot" with the USB drive letter, ie:
    Code: 
    plpmkboot F:

Let me know if it works :D
Click to expand...

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

Mussels

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System Specs
System Name Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory 2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s) Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage 2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s) Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) | Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) | Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s) Logitech G560 | Corsair Void pro RGB |Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores Nyooom.
bumping because i got around to repairing the CPU fan, and now this laptop works just fine ;)
 
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