how to fix my old laptop

[atm34900]

Recently i found a laptop that I had years ago so I wanted to power it on but it said that it had now operating system so I tried installing Windows XP but it showed me an error that the windows couldn't find the hard drive , I think that it's broken but I had another hard drive laying around so I tried to change it but the end of them it's the same , the new hard drive that i want to replace is like the one in PS3 but the old on has only like pens , it was IDE hard drive not SATA , so what to do ? should i find another operating system that works or is there another place to store my hard drive ..

My laptop is a IBM Thinkpad Type 2723 or T1636 or X31

 

[Barty1884]

Sounds like the IDE laptop is dead (or potentially the controller). You cannot replace an IDE hard drive in a laptop with a SATA hard drive.

If you want to revive this laptop, you'd need to find an IDE drive to test with (to rule out the drive or the controller).

 

[captaincharisma]

a SATA hard drive will not work in a laptop that takes an IDE drive

 

[atm34900]

I heard that Windows XP doesn't work on IDE drives you know when you install them , can I do it with a modded WXP or get another operating system that works ?

 

[Barty1884]

SATA was implemented in ~2000, not becoming commonplace well into XP's lifespan - so I highly doubt XP doesn't "support" IDE.