VOGONS


First post, by airbone-x

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hello,
I have toshiba 220cs in very good and original condition with win95, it is fitted with 1,4GB toshiba HDD. I have problems with this hard drive - sometimes, but quite often, it does not want to boot... I only hear sound like attempt to read, and it does it 3x and then freezes for some time and then gives message about missing system disk. Sometimes it boots on first time or any other of these 2 more attempts. When it does not boot, also in bios harddrive is not visible like it was not fitted. Another thing that tells me soomething is not ok with this HD is that when computer runs and there is no reading/writing to disc, so it is in standby state, every like 20-30 seconds it makes click sound like it was parking heads.... It does it also when connected via adapter to modern pc. Yesterday it could not boot as well, so I have opened it and saw that head was not in parking position but was on the platter, so I moved it to parked position. Machine then booted fine on first attempt, but I think nothing really changed and it will start to fail boot again.
Any ideas if this is dying HDD and must be replaced or is there anything else what could be done?
I have heard that there is something specific on these satellite toshiba hard drives and is not easy to replace it with other brand due to some different pinout? is that true?
Could someone advice if is possible to exchange this drive with CF and make 1:1 clone on CF card? If so, what is the best software to clone? I do not mind if it is paid. I do not want to loose win95 installation because recovery application is missing from windows (maybe someone already backed up the computer when it was new, since this recovery system can be used only once).

Thank you very much for replies.

Reply 1 of 3, by MikeSG

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Possibly bad sectors. To scan/fix it you typically use another machine using the CHKDSK command.

Sometimes bad sectors never stop growing in numbers. In that case the drive shouldn't be used again.

I'm sure there are secondhand drives on eBay that are compatible. Pinout should be checked.. may be 44 or 48 pins which includes the power pins.

I don't think CF cards are easily compatible on a laptops IDE/power interface. Most likely compatible with the PCMCIA interface if it has one, but might be frustrating booting from that.

Reply 2 of 3, by airbone-x

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
MikeSG wrote on Yesterday, 13:44:
Possibly bad sectors. To scan/fix it you typically use another machine using the CHKDSK command. […]
Show full quote

Possibly bad sectors. To scan/fix it you typically use another machine using the CHKDSK command.

Sometimes bad sectors never stop growing in numbers. In that case the drive shouldn't be used again.

I'm sure there are secondhand drives on eBay that are compatible. Pinout should be checked.. may be 44 or 48 pins which includes the power pins.

I don't think CF cards are easily compatible on a laptops IDE/power interface. Most likely compatible with the PCMCIA interface if it has one, but might be frustrating booting from that.

No bad sectors at all. Using chkdsk /r suggests using scandisk as a better solution and scandisk complete scan does not find a single bad sector.
Secondhand drives on ebay of these sizes and capacity (pata 2,5 small capacities like 2-10GB) are sold for extreme money 150-200eur....
I think this laptop only can use disks up to 8GB. I have some pata 2,5 harddrives but larger capacity and not sure if it can be used, or maybe yes if I make 8GB partition in it?
It has two PCMCIA slots but I am not sure if this laptop can boot from PCMCIA and I saw several threads about this and seems to be pain in the ass to get this working....

Whats the best software for disc cloning, partitioning etc, including these old IDE/PATA?

Reply 3 of 3, by MikeSG

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Are you sure scandisk scans for bad sectors?

IBM Travelstar HDDs are inexpensive.

Not sure what the best cloning software is. I have Disk Genius saved on my PC but can't remember if it's good. If you can connect the drive to a modern PC you can clone it... including MBR etc and all partitions so it boots properly.