Hello,

Here is my situation. I have an IBM Thinkpad G40. It was running on Windows XP PRO. One day when booting up..NO OS found! Did a small amount of t/s on it.. and figured it was the HD... I booted up Knoppix.. and it found all the content on the HD.. COOL! I love what Linux can do! Anyway, I recovered what I needed. Then thought to myself.. screw Windows.. I work in a windows world and am sick of it.

So.. I installed Mandrake 10.1 successfully. However, upon booting.. the bios is still looking for a "network boot" and not finding the HD. I changed BIOS setting and the Boot order.. all that to find the HD first and quick boot.. scan first.. all that crap.. however.. still not finding the HD.. Knoppix does.. but my bios isn't. Mandrake is on the MBR.. but something is getting in between. I guess..lol.. this was the original problem when I was tring to boot to XP.. but whatever.. anyone have any idea on how I can remedy this? Flash the bios?? Boot mandrake from a floppy?? I am going to try these.. but any help is definitely appreciated! Thank you in advance!

ok well done on t/shooting so far....
it looks like you have no bootloader anymore easy to fix

1) let knoppix load open a shell icon type commands
su
grub
root (hdX,Y)......where X and y are per my tut where /boot partition is in grubspeak
setup (hd0)
quit

and reboot but b4 you do have a bo peep at your /boot/grub/menu.lst file to see if it looks ok read my tut for other bits


if mdk on c drive with no other partitions its (hd0,0)

Thanks for the info. I followed these instructions... and still having an issue with my bios wanting to find a network boot. I reformated the drive and started from scratch.. and put mandrake boot on the MBR... still upon boot.. I am going directly to the bios looking for a network boot.. not seeing my HD. I am thinking something internal is screwed up. At a loss on this one.
What is funny is I can run knoppix as an OS and save programs to the HD. Anyone have any suggestions? Flash the bios maybe?

Make sure the BIOS config has the hard drive enabled. Could be something corrupted in the BIOS CMOS or something is corrupted in the MBR.

b4 you do please supply current boot order and the name of the hd.

Have you attempted any MS rescue function off its cd?

does this PC have a diagnostic partition normally found (by other posters) by hitting F10 at boot?

Ahhhh.... as I look deeper into my BIOS config.. I have no HD listed. my bios version..cpu..memory...mac address.. etc.. but no HD. I need to look further into having it recognized. I do believe there is the problem! Thanks for the help. If you have anything to offer in the way of getting my bios to recognize my HD.. would be greatly appreciated. Still investigating.

well done now what type is it?

if sata or scsi you need to configure the bios options for raid b4 the sata drive is recognised

just the stock hitachi 40GB Drive. No fancy sata or SCSI here...lol. IDE.. I know I need to flash this BIOS I went to IBM website.. and found version.. 12uj22ud.exe which is an updated BIOS version for my G40 Thinkpad. Never flashed a bios b4 w/o os recognized.. only upgraded. I wonder.. is there a way to execute the .exe in linux? Can I use Knoppix to open the file via a runline cmd.. then reboot and update take place? Or I might be opening a can of worms with that idea.

AFAIK there isn't a safe method to flash the BIOS in linux. Do you have a floppy drive? I take it the BIOS still does not see the hard drive? How old is this laptop? Could it be a bad battery?

2 years old. Battery is good. Yes I have a floppy drive. See's every thing except the HD. I was able to install Mandrake on the HD though. Mandrake is on the MBR.. I reformatted and did a clean install. So, BIOS it is.

You can create a DOS boot floppy and use it to flash the BIOS and you can also create a floppy or CD to boot linux with the mkbootdisk command. However, I am still puzzled about why the BIOS is not finding the hard drive.

me too my friend... me too

those ribbons for ide can get bent and damaged.

check your HD is still jumpered to master then unplug the optical and plug it into the HD if its a separate cable even better...check your ide controller but it should be ok....I would like to know if its just a damaged cable.....or one of your friends put the connector in wrong one time and bent the pins...doesn hurt to check them?

no.. there is no cable.. it plugs directly in.. Laptop style. I thought of all that already. I am hooking the HD up to another CPU I Have to see if another CPU will recognize the drive.

Well... in the end.. turns out it was the HD. This was a t/s step I should have done long ago. DUMB! Instead of "assuming" Ridiuculous. Well.. eating crow on that one.. At least it was a learning experience. Now I do have Mandrake 10.1 up and running. Few things I need to get as far as upgrading KDE.. it comes with 3.2 as I am sure you know. ALso.. my RPM files won't install.. if they are.. not sure where they are putting them. ANyway, that is a question for a different forum.. Thanks for hanging in there with my guys.