Go to the IBM web site and search for a utility called Drive Fitness Test.
It will give IBM hard drives a good going over and if there is any problems
give you an error code you can report to the help line and if it is covered
under warranty they will replace it. Often items that are past warranty are
still covered under a defective recall program and they will repair it as
well , even though out of warranty.

Dale Laluk

-----Original Message-----
From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rob Cilia
Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2003 4:58 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PCBUILD] ibm thinkpad r20 laptop harddrive problems

Hello PCBuild Listers, I'm experiencing a snafu with my ibm thinkpad r30
laptop.  Lately & quite frequently, the laptop has problems finding the
harddrive during power up, the post screen will report a fixed disk failure
or missing harddrive error, if I reboot the pc several times (either plugged
in or running on batteries), the harddrive is found again and winxp boots up
normally.  I just upgraded to winxp, I was originally running win2k (and yes
I was experiencing the same problems with win2k as well which leads me to
believe that the problem isn't OS specific but some form of hardware issue).
When it does find the harddrive, I can boot up with no problems and run
winxp and any of my apps with no difficulty.  Norton Utilities 2002 doesn't
find any harddrive errors or problems when I run NDD (Norton Disk Doctor
which is a pretty solid tool for this kind of stuff). I've run the demo copy
of SiSoftware Sandra Standard diagnostic software and it ran the harddrive
through a few tests and it didn't report any errors or problems either. Has
anyone ever heard of this type of problem with ibm thinkpads or other
laptops, if so, any ideas as to what may be causing this?  The laptop
doesn't have any ide cables for me to examine, the harddrive component can
be removed by unscrewing one bolt and you can pull it out similar to a
pcmcia card.  I can't see any damage to the harddrive or the connector
inside the laptop.  Any info would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks in
advance....rob, -freezing in wpg,canada

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