Inspiron 600m hard drive not found

hi,
I was using the inspiron 600m notebook and suddenly the system crashed.
When I tried to reboot , I got an error message saying "No Bootable
device found" , I rebooted and entered BIOS setup to find the primary
hard drive field blank. What are my options now , is it easy to replace
the notebook hard drive on my own or should I send it to Dell to check
it out. My warranty expired last year.

Any links to other troubleshooting sites will be helpful.

thanks,
Sriram

Unfortunately, they make a custom hard drive. So, like a lot of other
things with Dell, you'll have to get it through them, AFAIK.

sriram anand wrote:
hi,
I was using the inspiron 600m notebook and suddenly the system crashed.
When I tried to reboot , I got an error message saying "No Bootable
device found" , I rebooted and entered BIOS setup to find the primary
hard drive field blank. What are my options now , is it easy to replace
the notebook hard drive on my own or should I send it to Dell to check
it out. My warranty expired last year.

Any links to other troubleshooting sites will be helpful.

thanks,
Sriram

sriram anand wrote:
hi,
I was using the inspiron 600m notebook and suddenly the system crashed.
When I tried to reboot , I got an error message saying "No Bootable
device found" , I rebooted and entered BIOS setup to find the primary
hard drive field blank. What are my options now , is it easy to replace
the notebook hard drive on my own or should I send it to Dell to check
it out. My warranty expired last year.

I've never worked with a I600m, but have replaced plenty of disks in
other Dell Inspiron laptops.

Most Dell laptops have their disk mounted easily replaceable in the
side of the laptop (it's one of the more common things to break
because of the handling many laptops receive, and hence it would cost
them $$$ on service if they couldn't replace it quickly! Service cost
is also the reason why they use a standard disk if at all possible).

All the information you want is in the Service Manual and/or the
Owner's Manual, available from Dell:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins600m/


Short version:
Like most laptops the I600m uses a standard 2.5" IDE disk, just make
sure you buy the right size (not the 3.5" disks used in desktops nor
the ultra-small 1.8" ones) and you should be OK. If you want to be
REAL sure take out the disk and take it with you to a shop, but it
really shouldn't be necessary.

The disk needs to be mounted in a bracket and possibly need a
converter for the pins, but all that is already in the machine, you
just need to move the hardware from the old disk to the new...

Looks like it came with 40 or 60 GB 5400 RPM disks, but any 2.5" IDE
drive should work. You can get a good performance boost from getting a
7200 RPM disks instead or go for size (5400 RPM drives are available
in bigger sizes than 7200RPM, there's also a small price difference
which grows as the size goes up).