Satellite Pro A60 - HDD not detected by BIOS

Hi to all !!
I've been given a Satellite Pro A60 (PSA65E) , for free ....'cause it has a bug!!! But I would like to fix it and use it.
Problem is that HDD is not recognized by the BIOS. Strange enough, it is possible to format it during initial phase of an OS installation from scratch ( I've tried with Win XP and Win 2000 ), but installations do not proceed further since it will not boot from HD. If I try to install a seccond time, it does find some data already present in the HD and gives warnongs ... meaning that it is also possible to write on the disk.
BIOS screen says : no drive.
CD drive is OK, shown as secondary.
I did also search through the Fora at no avail.
Actions done so far :
* flashed the BIOS , now at 1.90 release
* Replaced the original HD (Toshiba, 40 GB ) with another one known to be good , smaller ( Toshiba as well , 30 GB)
* Tried to pull out CD drive and verified BIOS does recognize it has been removed, and recognized it again when put back in. The same manouvre done with the HD does not change anything in the BIOS screen: it always says 'no drive'.
* Tried with DOS version of Partition Magic : it says 'no drive found'. Same with the backup disks that came with the PC.
* Tried other stuff found in Fora : remove all power sorce, let the PC for several minutes.... opened up and checked for visible problems in the HDD area and so on.
Any suggestion would be be appreciated !!!
Thanks
aurcri

Hi to all!
I've spent some hrs to try to find out what is going on. I surrender. The result stays the same: Satellite Pro 'sees' just non Toshiba HDD's. Toshiba HDD's work fine on other notebooks. Tried also the available Toshiba HDD's on a third unit. The only explanation I can guess of is that Satellite BIOS queries the installed HD something that other notebooks do not, and most of the HD reply as it expects and others ( Toshiba's ) do not.
The most suspected item remains BIOS, IMHO.
Talked also with the guy who handed over the broken Satellite to me: no help... he just stated that he never had a problem since the beginning and then suddenly one morning he could not IPL anymore. Oh well, he got lost with the back up CD's, due to the 'strange' behavior of the problem. Taking into consideration that it was possible to R/W from the HD but not to IPL, it is understandable.
I think we can close this thread, unless somebody from Toshiba Storage Division can shade some light....or the Bios guru, maybe.... it would be nice to know.
Thanks to all for the attention
Aurcri

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