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That's right. It does have the advantage of being able to move your data between PC's.

You probably could still access that port, but even I dread the thought of unclipping and unscrewing the amount of screws you would need to access the port itself. I'm not sure that an identical HDD would make a difference here, since this appears to be a known problem with these laptops. The bridging of those two pins is the only thing I was confident would work, but from here, it would be trial and error. I would say possibly an alternative brand hard drive will work?

Even though the cd drive is the exact same, will the pins need to be switched?? Dam! More bad news...I got the enclosure and it says I need to format it before it will work! ARRGGGHHH!

You should not need to format the HDD you had in your PC originally, unless there's something wrong with the drive. As long as you can set the boot priority to your external USB device in BIOS, you should be able to boot to it as normal.

OK, Bear with me Germanio, I really do need to reread this thread when I get a chance. I can't remember what problems you were having all together, and what troubleshooting we have done. I didn't realise you were planning to buy another CD-ROM as well.

Thanks mad, take your time. The new cd-drive was just a new idea i got.

Hey Ger, phew, OK, I knew I had forgotten everything we had done so far.

Actually, now that I have read all that it all makes sense, and I really do think a caddy is a good idea. From another PC, we can diagnose the problem or at the very least, get the data we need from it. Probably not a good idea as a perminent solution, once everything is fixed, we can install it back in the laptop. Not sure it will boot from external USB in any case, but the caddy would still be usful for any future problems or if you need to move a large amount of data.

Sorry about the confusion about the CD-ROM, an identical make and model will work just fine in this laptop (confused with another thread). Just remove it, and install the replacement, you won't even need to configure it.

If you have the money to buy both then great, but I think we may be able to resolve the BSOD's from an XP setup cd?

Thanks again madmonkey, I really appreciate all the help and advice you are giving me!

I think I will get the cd-drive now that I know it will work, I am better off without it, and then we will be able to advance to the next part of the problem

I didn't actually get an XP setup with my computer but I found a program that got me to download 6 floppy disks from microsoft, and then it made them into a recovery console cd. I hope this will work? I can't remember the site I got it off or the guy who made it though.

Ger.
(Going to order cd-drive!! )

Hey Guys,

@Germanio - Those disks should be fine, and were probably from your laptops site. Otherwise you wouldn't have known to get them.

I am a little concerned that the problem is in the connection to the mainboard and not the actual CD player, but I will be crossing my fingers for you, and I trust Madmonkey implicitly.

Looking forward to your next post, and the new CD Player.

TTFN

LGW