Problem with 500gb Fujitsu MJA2500BH 2.5" SATA HDD

[Rod Horton]

I have an IBM Lenovo T60 Thinkpad Laptop. The operating system is Windows 7.
I fitted one of the above drives and installed Windows 7 on it. It was running perfectly until I downloaded the Thinkpad updates after which the computer started to hang. The only way I could make progress was to unplug from the mains and remove the battery.
I decided to reinstall Windows 7, hoping the installation disk would format the drive and give me a new, clean install.
Unfortunately this did not happen and I am left with the situation where I am unable to make progress with reinstalling the O.S.
I am getting the following message:
'Setup did not find any hard drives on your computer.
Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.
Setup cannot continue. To quit setup press F3.'
I have an external enclosure in which I have now mounted the problem drive and I have been able to get the Laptop to recognise this drive in 'My Computer'.
I am assuming I still have to do more formatting on the drive.
What is the best way to get around this problem?
Rod Horton

[Vulcan]

I have an IBM Lenovo T60 Thinkpad Laptop. The operating system is Windows 7.
I fitted one of the above drives and installed Windows 7 on it.

Please start earlier in your story. What disk drive was fitted (and, presumably, working), before you changed the configuration? What is the history of this 500GB disk - new / pre-owned / bought from Ebay / or something else? In other words - how confident are you in that disk, and does it have a warranty?

It was running perfectly until I downloaded the Thinkpad updates after which the computer started to hang.

How long was it "running perfectly"? What tests did you do, to decide that everything was OK at that stage? How soon after your applied the Thinkpad updates, did your problems start? (Immediately? Next reboot? Something else?) Did any of the Thinkpad updates relate to the disk drive (e.g. disk f/w) or to the BIOS? How do you know that this disk drive is compatible with your Thinkpad? (I know that some Thinkpads have compatibility issues with non-original disks - although I'm not saying this applies in your case, as I haven't got the time to research your specific config).

I am getting the following message:
'Setup did not find any hard drives on your computer.
<snip>

Unfortunately that error message is not detailed enough to diagnose your problem IMHO - hence the additional questions I'm asking.

I have an external enclosure in which I have now mounted the problem drive and I have been able to get the Laptop to recognise this drive in 'My Computer'.
I am assuming I still have to do more formatting on the drive.

I politely disagree - but if you want to test your assumption, then put the drive in an external case, format it there, put it back as the internal drive and repeat your attempt to install Windows 7 onto it. I expect the process to fail in the same way.

One thing you could do, is to "zero-fill" the disk (e.g. using HDDScan or other utilities, even those from Seagate or WD, since Fujitsu don't supply one, AFAIK), before you then do an OS format of the disk, in the steps above. This would only help, if your problem is caused by unreadable sectors on the disk (and poor error reporting from the Win 7 installation program), which the zero-fill would cause the disk to reallocate - but if this does appear to help, then it is a concern, and would suggest possible problems with the disk. You don't have to do this, and we should still see evidence in the SMART data collected later (see below).

What is the best way to get around this problem?

Before trying to "get around" the problem, you first need to diagnose what the actual problem is - which is far from clear at this stage IMHO.

You clearly don't need the data from the disk. As far as I can see, your possible causes are most likely to be a fault with that disk, or an incompatibility between that disk and your laptop.

You could do simple read tests and (attempt to) gather the SMART data, by using HDDScan under Windows, with the drive in an external USB enclosure. Or you could do similar processes with the drive fitted internally if your laptop BIOS uses (or allows to be selected) IDE/compatibility mode for the SATA disk controller, as this is required by MHDD. Then download, burn & boot the MHDD ISO image, to carry out similar basic tests. Then we'll see what those results show.

That would be my approach - but both of these sets of tests might show no issues, if your problem is actually a limitation in your laptop BIOS, for example.

Since you report that it was the Thinkpad updates which was the start of your problems, then I would suggest investigating what changes they made, in order to get clues as to where to focus your efforts. Good luck

[Rod Horton]

I have an IBM Lenovo T60 Thinkpad Laptop. The operating system is Windows 7.
I fitted one of the above drives and installed Windows 7 on it.

Please start earlier in your story. What disk drive was fitted (and, presumably, working), before you changed the configuration? What is the history of this 500GB disk - new / pre-owned / bought from Ebay / or something else? In other words - how confident are you in that disk, and does it have a warranty?

It was running perfectly until I downloaded the Thinkpad updates after which the computer started to hang.

How long was it "running perfectly"? What tests did you do, to decide that everything was OK at that stage? How soon after your applied the Thinkpad updates, did your problems start? (Immediately? Next reboot? Something else?) Did any of the Thinkpad updates relate to the disk drive (e.g. disk f/w) or to the BIOS? How do you know that this disk drive is compatible with your Thinkpad? (I know that some Thinkpads have compatibility issues with non-original disks - although I'm not saying this applies in your case, as I haven't got the time to research your specific config).

I am getting the following message:
'Setup did not find any hard drives on your computer.
<snip>

Unfortunately that error message is not detailed enough to diagnose your problem IMHO - hence the additional questions I'm asking.

I have an external enclosure in which I have now mounted the problem drive and I have been able to get the Laptop to recognise this drive in 'My Computer'.
I am assuming I still have to do more formatting on the drive.

I politely disagree - but if you want to test your assumption, then put the drive in an external case, format it there, put it back as the internal drive and repeat your attempt to install Windows 7 onto it. I expect the process to fail in the same way.

One thing you could do, is to "zero-fill" the disk (e.g. using HDDScan or other utilities, even those from Seagate or WD, since Fujitsu don't supply one, AFAIK), before you then do an OS format of the disk, in the steps above. This would only help, if your problem is caused by unreadable sectors on the disk (and poor error reporting from the Win 7 installation program), which the zero-fill would cause the disk to reallocate - but if this does appear to help, then it is a concern, and would suggest possible problems with the disk. You don't have to do this, and we should still see evidence in the SMART data collected later (see below).

What is the best way to get around this problem?

Before trying to "get around" the problem, you first need to diagnose what the actual problem is - which is far from clear at this stage IMHO.

You clearly don't need the data from the disk. As far as I can see, your possible causes are most likely to be a fault with that disk, or an incompatibility between that disk and your laptop.

You could do simple read tests and (attempt to) gather the SMART data, by using HDDScan under Windows, with the drive in an external USB enclosure. Or you could do similar processes with the drive fitted internally if your laptop BIOS uses (or allows to be selected) IDE/compatibility mode for the SATA disk controller, as this is required by MHDD. Then download, burn & boot the MHDD ISO image, to carry out similar basic tests. Then we'll see what those results show.

That would be my approach - but both of these sets of tests might show no issues, if your problem is actually a limitation in your laptop BIOS, for example.

Since you report that it was the Thinkpad updates which was the start of your problems, then I would suggest investigating what changes they made, in order to get clues as to where to focus your efforts. Good luck

Hi Vulcan,
Thanks for your in-depth reply. You are pretty well on the beam with some of your information. Since posting the problem earlier and before reading your reply I went to PC World with the Laptop and had a word with one of the engineers there. As soon as he turned it on and saw the error code he said that it was a Smart failure. I will exchange the drive later in the week.
Rod Horton.