HP Pavilion dv6-6033cl laptop does not recognize HDD

[soldar]

Laptop, HP Pavilion dv6-6033cl, Intel Core i5-2410M, 2 cores, 4 threads,

My friend had this old laptop lying around and I suggested he update it by replacing the HDD with SSD.

When he installed the SSD he did some damage and the laptop no longer recognizes any HDD or SSD. He probably damaged the motherboard where the HDD connector is located.

So he has given it to me to do whatever I like with it. I have done everything I could think of to see if I could get a disk to work but I have given up on that.

It boots from USB and I can boot from a LIVE Linux Mint USB but it is really not practical to use it like that. I cannot install Linux Mint on another disk connected to USB, it has to be connected to the motherboard.

I figure if the motherboard needs to be repaired/replaced then it is not worth the cost.

The BIOS has an option to boot from the network. I have never done anything of the sort and have no idea how it could be done or if it is a practical way of using the computer.

Any suggestions?

[rdl]

Can't you just install some version of Linux on a flash drive? My NAS (old FreeNAS) is installed on and runs from a pair of 16GB flash drives in Raid 1 configuration (mirrored).

[soldar]

Can't you just install some version of Linux on a flash drive? My NAS (old FreeNAS) is installed on and runs from a pair of 16GB flash drives in Raid 1 configuration (mirrored).

As I said, it will boot and run LIVE from a USB flash drive but it will not install to anything on USB, it seems it has to be on the motherboard itself.

I might try using another computer to install Mint to a SSD connected directly to the motherboard and then move de SSD to this laptop using a USB adapter. That might work.

I wish it were possible to install the OS on the same drive as it is being installed from but I do not think that is possible.

I have looked a bit into booting from the network and I find it too cumbersome and impractical so I will forget about that.

If I could substitute a SSD in place of the optical drive... but the optical drive ha a different SATA connector, a "slimline" SATA.

[Someone]

As I said, it will boot and run LIVE from a USB flash drive but it will not install to anything on USB, it seems it has to be on the motherboard itself.

"on the motherboard" ?? what do you mean? If it can boot from a USB drive it can boot from a USB drive... which you could image/setup with any arbitrary system (not a LIVE image which will probably protect its self as its not supposed to be persistent)

or just put a SSD in where the optical drive is.

[soldar]

"on the motherboard" ?? what do you mean? If it can boot from a USB drive it can boot from a USB drive... which you could image/setup with any arbitrary system (not a LIVE image which will probably protect its self as its not supposed to be persistent)

or just put a SSD in where the optical drive is.

It will boot from a USB flash drive but it will not install the OS to another drive connected to another USB port.

The optical drive uses a different SATA connector called "7 + 6 slimline SATA". I have ordered an adapter cable and now have to wait a few weeks for it to arrive. Still, I am pessimistic that this will work because I suspect the mother board and BIOS will only accept an optical drive there and not a regular SATA drive. Or if it does accept it then it will be much slower. We shall see.

I think my next experiment will be to install the OS on an SSD using another computer and then see if this computer will boot from there and accept the change in hardware configuration.

[Psi]

Could you fit a little NVMe to USB adaptor in where the HDD was supposed to go.
Then hard-wire one of the USB sockets to go to the NVMe-USB module and block it off from external use.

That way you can install windows on the USB device and you will get all the benefits of a proper SSD with high endurance and stuff.
It's a better option than running a OS off a USB stick or SDcard.

Hopefully it has USB3 sockets.

If you're really lucky you might find an internal USB you can use instead of removing one of the external ones.

[soldar]

It refuses to boot from a SSD connected with a USB adapter to a USB port. I wonder if it would boot using another USB-SATA adapter but I do not have another one and at this point I should give up because I have already spent on this many more hours than the challenge is worth.

I will wait for the slimline SATA adapter to arrive and give it a last shot with that. Other than that I do not have the means to do other experiments and I am not going to invest the time or the money. It is just not worth it.

At this point it seems to me the only sure option would be to repair the motherboard ... which is not economically practical. Searching I see some problems on these motherboards are caused by bad solder joints and some can be repaired by baking the entire motherboard for 3 minutes in an oven at 350F.  I am not even going to attempt to disassemble the laptop so I can bake the motherboard but....

This problem started when the owner changed the HDD to an SSD and probably pressed the motherboard connector too hard and there is a very good chance the problem is a bad connection which became disconnected due to mechanical stress. I am not about to bake the entire motherboard but I have access to the connector area and I am thinking maybe I could try applying heat to just that small area and see if that re-solders whatever became disconnected.

I would have to think of a way to apply heat in a very controlled way, in temperature and in location.  I am thinking of something like the old electric car lighters which glowed red. I have not seen one in ages.

Any ideas or opinions?

[soldar]

Too impatient to wait for the arrival of the cable in a few weeks, from China, I built one myself. A M-F SATA cable. I cut a regular F-F SATA cable and I soldered a male part I salvaged from a drive that was dead. It was extremely difficult because the pins and solders are tiny and beyond my means, tools and abilities. Nevertheless after a long time and much patience I got a working extension SATA M-F cable.

And it worked!

I connected an SSD data to the optical drive data but I have to feed power to the SSD externally. Still, it does work. I have installed the OS and it works.

Now the problem is that this is a mess of cables with an external PSU for the drive, etc. But once I get the cable from China I believe I can put everything in the optical drive bay and the laptop will be working although without the optical drive. Still, I am satisfied with how it's going.

[Infraviolet]

"but it will not install to anything on USB, it seems it has to be on the motherboard itself"
Are you sure? What error does Linux Mint give? Have you worked through the "try something else" options in the "install linux mint" program which let you specify drives and partitions. You should be able to install a non-live linux OS to an external HDD this way, and if the computer can boot from a live linux USB it ought to be able to boot from an installed linux USB external drive.

How about using another PC to install linux on an external drive, including put grub on that external drive in the very first partition, potentially with some UEFI partition too, then take that external drive to the damaged computer and have it boot from it.

In the end the external drive might be best to be an internal grade HDD or SSD, placed in a SATA-USB enclosure, this will have much betetr lifespan for write cycles than something sold as a USB memory stick or an external HDD storage device.