IBM TravelStar - Recent Questions, Troubleshooting & Support

All versions of windows up and including windows vista are no longer supported. This creates lots of problems trying to recover or install an older version of windows. An IT friend as a favor may attempt a recovery but will take older versions of software. Mother boards etc can be swapped out etc and some parts/software available on line. Most commercial computer repair may not be your least expensive choice. Suggest finding an older computer used with windows 8 installed. Windows 10 takes a different hardware to get good performance and is usually not compatible to older machines. The used market is filled with very inexpensive computers. Make sure if you elect to find a previously used it has some warranted! If files are still intact on the old drive you may be able to install drive as a second slave drive and retrieve. If you attempt to replace drive and do a fresh XP install (original generic discs) confirm that the (Windows Microsoft) numbers on the label of the lap top are ledge-able. The numbers are the licences required to register the software even if the XP is out of date you will likely be required to on line register with Microsoft. Hope this helps

the dearlership should know what you need. the reason the socket is so different is to let you know, the stuff in which contained in this part is very sensitive and could major problems if you are not sure what your doing

Hello and Welcome to FixYa!

Please explain your query in a bit detail. What error/ fault exactly, you are facing..
Make Sure, that you are connecting the device properly, and the device is not disabled from BIOS, also the device didn't have any hardware error/problem. Hoping to hear from you soon.

Concerned.

if your computer came with a motherboard disc the drivers could be on it click start control panel administrive tools ,computer management ,device manager look through all of your devices if you see a yellow question mark?or exclamation mark ! or red x right click to reinstall drivers or if you can see your usb but its not working ports(com&lpt)right click update driver just replace the cable of the hard disk, when you plugged the external disk drive you got that windows could recognize the USB device change the cable everything should work fine again, sometimes the wires inside the cable will be damaged due to bending or stretching or placing heavy equipment upon the cable, check the USB leads that attach to the motherboard usually red-white-green-black make sure they are securely seated and have no dust build up on them dust will cause static and a lot of unforeseen problems hope this helps

This is an IDE drive - also known as PATA. To use it on a usb you will need a hard drive enclosure box. (For IDE not SATA) These are available from a number of places, online and computor stores. Will cost about $20 to 30
The box will have screws and connectors needed.

You need to purchase Windows Vista, once you have the disc with you, then you can start the Widnows installation process. during the process you can choose to format your hard drive and install Windows.

Hard drive passwords are embedded in the firmware of the drive itself. You need to try to find out what the password was.

There is an article about this at this site.

Can you "read" any files from the external disk-drive?
Can you "delete" any files/folders from the external disk-drive?
Can you click 'File' and 'New' and 'Folder' to create a new folder on the drive?

The warranty on any '20GB' disk-drive ended _years_ ago.

It is time to "retire" that disk-drive -- take a hammer to it, so that any data files on it will _never_ be able to accessed by the F.B.I.,
and buy a new disk-drive.

In that case the disk or its case has died. Take the disk out of the case and put it directly in a desktop. If now it's recognized and accessible then the case has died - if not then the disk itself has died.