HDD with Apple Firmware

teddknudson,

Thank you for using Dell's Community Forum.

Unfortunately, I don’t know of a way to do that.

By fiddling around (multiple on-off starts over a range of time and temperature - like over night!) The Bios (A15)  finally managed to find the HDD and it seemed to be working - albeit - only part time . It shuts down after the drive gets warm. When the Bios again boots up, it gets to the point where it decides it doesn't see the drive anymore and I'm back to a "no-see HDD" situation. I called an Apple shop nearby and they believe the Apple firmware has no affect on the drive's use.in my Dell application. Any other ideas about how to get this thing up and full time running?

Have you considered that it might be a bad drive?  The next time it is working,  download and run the IBM (or is that Hitahchi now?) Drive Fitness Test to see what is sayes about the drive.

Another thing to consider is that most drives have a max opperating temp of 55C,  yet most Dell notebooks don't even turn on the cooling fan until the system reaches 60C or more,  so you could be pushing the drive past its safe operating range.

You could try buying one of the 2.5" to 3.5" adapters and connect the drive into a desktop PC to see how it faires with it.  If the desktop has problems  then the problem is probably with the drive,  not the notebook...

Thanks for your input. Much appreciated too. I would like to try your last suggestion - re: hook it into the pc! I'm not familiar with this arragement. Could you elaborate a bit more like what and how this hookup can be done. Currently the drive shuts down in a blue blaze of error messages and because it quits so early I'm not able to catch or capture the messages, nor have I been able to keep it running long enough for a fitness test! In any case I'm now convinced that the HDD is duff!

Well,  you can go to a good computer parts store and by an adapter which will let you mount your 2.5" notebook HD into your desktop PC.  These cost between $10-20 depending upon where you buy it.  All it really does is convert the 44 pin connector on the notebook HD into a standard 40 pin [desktop] IDE cable header,  and a standard 4 pin [molex?] power connector.

Thanks for the info. I'll give it a try. Seems I have nothing much more to lose except my original $ 70.00 I paid for this thing in the first place. Lesson learned this time! Again many thanks for the suggestions. Good luck with your next problem solving! tk

i've got one of those adaptors on order and was told to connect it as a slave (which makes since) therefore you don't mess with your drivers and other error messages on the host computer. if it recognizes it, it will kick back the drive letters, then just click on that "new" drive and you can format it, fdisk, etc. 

Thanks for the info. I'm buying one of these adapters via e-Bay and I'll certainly follow your suggestion(s). BUT, I'm afraid the hdd is really a bummer. I've not been able to get it up and running since I began this string. On the other hand it's an adventure trying to get this unit working again.

if it won't spin then it prob. dead. i got same problem, my teenager spilled water on the keyboard which i recon got in the hd. there are shops that can force spin a hd for data recovery but i understand it cost a few $.  if you have a local comp. shop that workson laptops might try them (or take it to a computer show if there is one in your area) and get help. not all comp. shops want to mess with laptops. i alsogot my adaptor off ebay, it might be in the mailbox today. if i have any luck i'll let you know.(i have had problems with firmware on scsi drives-i really don't how to get rid of it if reformatting doesn't help.  paul....    

Thanks for the data point. I'll watch for your latest input to this scenerio. tk

well my adaptor came today, i connected it to an extra computer as a slave and the host comp. wouldn't get passed a "boot disk error" message. i could hear the laptop drive making a funny siren like sound, and started getting warm just a bit, which it at least will spin. (i leave case open, i didn't use the rails just to try the adaptor) So mine i think is headed to trash pile.  In your particular case, i believe i would get another drive and ask about any firmware that might be installed. even better, get one that came from the basic family that your is. I've never messed with Apple. All drives should have a firmware sticker on the label if they are so equipped. if your shopping on ebay like i do, watch for those generic pictures. a pic of the real label would show you all the stats and ask about scandisk, bad clusters etc. paul..... 

Point taken! I managed to get the hdd up for about 10 minutes and then it went dead. I'm now convinced the fault lies within the heat range tolerance of this particular drive. I've moved already to a newer drive that is working just fine. Thanks to all for contributing to this futile effort. Perhaps better luck next time. tk