Member Avatar for lewashby

My dad has an older laptop that I intalled Linux Mint on a long time ago and he loves his Linux Mint. For Father's Day I got him an SSD but when I would get to the part of the installation where it needs to format the drive it would always give me an error and fail. A few times it did this after I swapped the drives out but now the computer will not even boot to a Linux Mint ISO USB or DVD with the SSD drive in because it gives an error saying that there's no hard drive detected. Upon further inspection I think I've found the problem and I think it's a hardware issue I just don't know what to do about it. The old HDD has 4 more pins off to one side than the SSD does so I don't think the SSD has a chance of plugging in, although I don't know why it was letting me get as far into the installation process as it did the first few times if it couldn't see the SSD anyway. Images attached, what can I do about this? Thanks.

HDDvsSSD.JPG

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Those extra 4–8 pins on the old 2.5" HDD are just legacy jumpers. SATA only needs the two main connectors: 7‑pin data and 15‑pin power. Many HDDs kept a small jumper block for things like limiting link speed; SSDs usually omit it. So the SSD is the right interface even though it lacks that little pin header. See WD’s note that jumpers are typically unnecessary on modern systems. WD SATA/EIDE jumper info.

On this Inspiron 1545, the drive has to be screwed into the Dell cage and bezel and then slid in as a single assembly. A thin 7 mm SSD can sit too low in the bay and miss the motherboard socket unless you reuse that cage and add a 7 mm->9.5 mm spacer or shim. This is why ’s spacer tip often fixes “no hard drive detected” on older laptops. Dell’s service manual shows the cage, bezel, and the two screws per side you need to move over. Inspiron 1545 Service Manual (Hard Drive). If your SSD shipped with a stick‑on spacer, use it so the plug lines up snugly. Crucial: laptop SSD install and spacer note.

Quick checks to isolate the fault (building on ’s idea):

  • Mount SSD in the Dell cage + spacer, insert firmly, then tap F12 at power‑on and see if BIOS lists the drive.
  • If still missing, test the SSD in a USB‑to‑SATA adapter on another PC. In a Linux live session run:
lsblk -o NAME,MODEL,SIZE
sudo dmesg | tail
  • If the SSD is seen externally but formatting still fails, wipe old signatures and retry install:
sudo wipefs -a /dev/sdX   # Destroys all partition signatures on X

Recreate partitions and proceed with the installer.

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Member Avatar for rproffitt

Without machine details I can't look into this. I will write that I've gone as far back as say a 2006 Dell e1505 with dual core Centrino and 1GB RAM to fit a SSD to let it be a nice enough Web tool. It would boot the OS and get on the Internet in 35 seconds.

PS. The HDD model can't be seen either but the extra pins were for other reasons like setting a cylindar limit to other. Please share more details.

Edited by rproffitt because: added ps.
commented: System: Host: gregs-laptop Kernel: 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Cinnamon 3.0.6 Distro: LinuxMint 2 betsy Machine: System: Dell product: Ins +4
Member Avatar for rproffitt

WDC 8 pin uses.

All makers did this years ago when machines were even older. Unless you have a PC close to 20 years old, I don't use those pins.

PS. Later I see we installed a WD Blue 1TB into an office laptop last week. The laptop was a HP EliteBook 745-G2 14" Notebook, AMD A10 Pro-7350B 2.1GHz Quad-Core, 500GB SATA HDD, 8GB DDR3, 802.11n, Bluetooth, Win10Home. Before it had some slug of a HDD, now it's ready for hopefully years of boring office drudgery.

Edited by rproffitt
Member Avatar for JamesCherrill

Have you tried it in another machine or external box in case the SSD is faulty?

Member Avatar for lewashby

It wont let me quote anyone???

details:
System: Host: gregs-laptop Kernel: 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Cinnamon 3.0.6
Distro: LinuxMint 2 betsy
Machine: System: Dell product: Inspiron 1545
Mobo: Dell model: 0G848F Bios: Dell v: A14 date: 12/07/2009
CPU: Single core Intel Celeron 900 (-UP-) cache: 1024 KB clocked at 1200 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Mobile 4 Series Integrated Graphics Controller
Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.06hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel GM45 Express GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.3.2
Audio: Card Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k3.16.0-4-amd64
Network: Card-1: Broadcom BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY driver: wl
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 78:e4:00:45:1f:db
Card-2: Marvell 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller driver: sky2
IF: eth0 state: down mac: a4:ba:db:c8:ab:18
Drives: HDD Total Size: 250.1GB (18.5% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: TOSHIBA_MK2565GS size: 250.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 48G used: 44G (96%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 56.5C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 134 Uptime: 11 min Memory: 383.6/2981.1MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.1.28

Member Avatar for rproffitt

Did you use the 7 to 9.5 mm spacer for the new thin SSD? Folk report that without the spacer, the drive didn't connect.

Common finds on this model is this and getting the BIOS current.

commented: That was exactly the problem. Thanks so much! +4
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