Have you tried using a the USB-IDE interface with a different operating system? I've had drives that Win7 recognized without a hitch and some that it just didn't like. Maybe try Windows XP, if that's an option at all.

Also, some machines apparently just don't recognize CF adapters. I've tested a couple of different adapters on this Toshiba laptop without success. You might want to try SD cards as an alternative.

Yes to both. I've tried the USB-IDE in Windows XP with another drive and it works great. Connect the Type 50 drive and nothing.

exs1s wrote:

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So, in summary, the original hard drive is not recognised by my Windows 10 PC (or my Mac) as even a drive via a USB to 2.5" IDE adapter. Yes, the adapter works with other drives. And the laptop doesn't even recognise any other drive is plugged in (except another type 50 drive and that is recognised by the laptop wich verifies the fixed disk controller works OK).

Does anyone have any experience with these laptops and their drives? And even better replacing the old drive with something new and more reliable?

Those old drives don't communicate with the parents system what their size and capabilities are like newer drives.
That is why you won't see the drive in W10 on a usb-ide adapter. Those old drives aren't recognized due to this limition on newer systems.

You will need to use another old system to attach the drive and access it after identifying it in the bios what size and geometry it has..

I have an update on this. I've now tried about 5 different drive solutions. This includes:

• mSATA with IDE Adapter
• CF Card with IDE Adapter
• 4GB Samsung Hard Drive

All of which work in my IBM T23 and T30. None of which work in the Compaq laptop. And interestingly - none of the Compaq HDDs are recognised in my even older IBM 600 series laptop, yet all the above hard drive solutions do work.

I genuinely think that these laptops have some type of proprietary MBR / file system / on-HDD controller or whatever. Absolutely no HDDs, other than the original Conner/Seagate hard drives which were originally spec'd seem to work.

There must be someone with experience of these machines and fitting updated solid sate drives.

Having the same problem but I have an LTE Elite 4/50cx

IBM OEM
Model IBM-H2344-A4 hard drive
344 mb capacity
915 cyl, 15 heads, 49 sect/track

Can't read it using usb/ide adapter

can't get a tested ide/cf adapter to boot from it.

I know it has a custom Partitoin at the beginning... Don't know what to do with that

kleung21, find an old pc with an IDE controller, and hook the drive up to that. Then you'll be able to access the drive... that is, if it isn't dead.
The custom partition is probably the compaq system partition.

Thank you guys.

As a follow-up. I found that it was the CF - ide adapter that was the problem. I swapped it out and reformatted the CF card. It runs fine even without the BIOS partition.

For anyone that needs follow-up. The compaq lte elite 4/50cx supports the CF-ide adapters... even if missing the bios partition. I am running dos/win311

exs1s wrote on 2019-01-09, 15:00:

EDIT - WARNING: DO NOT TRY AND INSTALL AN IDE TO CF ADAPTER IN AN LTE LITE MACHINE. IT FRIES THE HDD CONTROLLER.

...The next and main problem is that I'm not even sure the original drive is a standard 44-pin 2.5" IDE drive - even though it's presented in the BIOS as such, and has the standard (what looks like) 44-pin connector. The reason I think it may not be standard IDE that when I plug the drive into a 2.5" IDE to USB adapter, the drive powers up, but does not show up as attached - even when I use Windows 10's disk utility. The USB adapter is shown with nothing attached...

I have both the O.E. IBM 344mb and an 810mb Compaq supplied drives and can confirm they are accessible from Win98, XP and Win10 systems using an IDE 40 to 44 pin adapter. However, under a Win98 system, I did somehow corrupt the MBR on the 344mb IBM making it non-bootable.

kleung21 wrote on 2021-03-02, 02:30:

...The compaq lte elite 4/50cx supports the CF-ide adapters... even if missing the bios partition...

That will help quite a few users and you can still run the Set-Up and Diagnostics applications from inside Windows.