Dell dim 9200 NO BOOT DEVICE AVAILABLE HELP !

just out of the blue i got this eror- NO BOOT DEVICE AVAILABLE ! i have tried alsorts to try and get it going but im just lost now , any help greatly welcomed ! thanks in advance.

 

Go into the BIOS, it might be F12 and post what is listed as boot devices.
What operating system are you running? Do you know if your hard drive is SATA?

 

Im running vista 32 bit , i think it does have sata but says ( not present ) on boot sequence list, is the bios screen f2 or f12 ? if i press f12 i get the boot device menu ! which says

ONBOARD OR USB CD-ROM DRIVE
INTEL RAID
USB DEVICE

I tried posting picture up but failed !

 

sounds like your drive died. there utilties you can download to test it either from dell or from here. you will need one that is bootable. i suggest Ultimate Boot Disk as it is the one i use for work

 

I have ran the latest diagnostic from dell it seemed ok, but i have noticed my version bios is different 2.4.2 and theres a new one on dell 2.5.3 as im using a laptop at the moment how, i have tried to copy the bios update to cd but the pc wont boot, although it will with the windows cd or the diagnostic iso file from cd, i will try that you suggested if i can find it,thanks.

 

I very recently had program called refog keylogger on my pc, could this have killed my hard drive ?

 

not very likely for that app to kill a drive. sata drives are very sensitive to power surges and motherboard issues.

 

I think something went wrong with Intel RAID and that is why your computer doesn't see your SATA drive.

I would not flash the BIOS because you might just be compounding the problem.
What you might want to do is attach the hd externally, using a SATA to USB adapter, to a working computer and see if everything looks okay on the SATA drive. If it does, it could be a RAID problem or even something simple like the SATA cable. Easiest fix, buy a new SATA cable and try that to see if the computer boots up.
There is a way to turn off RAID but that is way above my pay grade.

 

I found this from 2007.

I have no idea if this would do anything in your situation but it is easy to try while you have the computer open changing the SATA cable.

 

Do i disconnect at the cd drive end and the port end ? mine is the mirror type sata btw if this makes any difference ! Thanks for the ideas, i will report back.

 

I can boot from vista disc but i have to do a clean install , not sure what to do now !

 

When i open my pc seems like there is 2 hard drives! which one is SATA ? sorry if this seems like a dumb question!

 

here is pic of the back of a sata drive

 

ok thanks, it looks like i have 2 of those @ 149gb each, where do you recommend buying from ?

 

i unfortunatly don't live in the same place you do. all i can say is buy from a reputable dealer and it should not cost more 100 bucks.

 

Two drives is some sort of RAID setup. I do not know much about RAID.
You might be able to turn RAID off in the BIOS, unhook one of the drives and install windows on it.

Unfortunately, I can't tell you which drive to unhook one is SATA 1 and the other SATA 2 (maybe the designation is SATA 0 and SATA 1 ?) . Hopefully someone will look in who does know about RAID.

 

i have dealt with SATA drives and "raid conrtolers". for the home user how to configure a raid controler is not nessesary. all a home user has to know is how to read the markings on the system board. the cable plugged into the lowest number on the systemboard will be your main drive(boot). the bios is configured from the factory for home use and only a user with lots of knowledge and paitence should muck with it. RAID at one time only used in highend(servers) systems, now with sata it used to control the hard drives in most new systems.

 

Ok thanks for that info, someone suggested on here to buy a sata/usb adapter to test the hard drive on another pc/laptop so i ordered one should have it tommorow should i have orderd 2 ? do you know how to test it, is it just a case of plugging it in ? im thinking the hard drive is knackered but it was cheaper to try it this way before i buy a new hard drive.

Talking of hard drives i found what do you think of western digital velociraptor 3.5" 150gb x 2 but there £124 each ? any comments on this very much appreciated, and thanks for all your help so far.

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=328152

 

ok first as far price goes i am unable to say if it is good or not, i live across the pond. second as far testing it goes one quick way is to unplug both of them from the systemboard and switch the cables around. also go into your cmos(setup for systemboard) and see if how many are listed.

 

No. That one adapter will work on any hard drive and possibly CD and DVD drives you have.

Depending upon how RAID was set up, you could have 1/2 the data on one drive and the other half on the other hard drive. Or, sometimes RAID is set up to mirror. Everything you do on the active drive is also written to the other drive.

 

Yeah i think its mirror what ever that means ! thankyou.

 

Sorry to sound dumb but i take it the sata cable is the cable runing from my hard drive to motherboard ? well i have bought a sata to usb adapter but can not get it to fit ! help please !

 

You plug the SATA drive into the adapter then you plug the USB cable from the adapter into a working computer. You do not put the adapter into your computer and you do not use the red with black connector SATA cable at all.

 

Sorry i do not understand, how can i plug the SATA drive into the adapter with what ? the adapter didnt come with any cable
! What usb cable ? i dont plug the adapter into which pc ?

At the moment i have an USBESATA USB 2.0 TO ESATA ADAPTER/CONVERTER

Instructions say connect the sata device to one end of sata cable, connect the other end of sata cable to the USBB2ESATA eSATA port.

I dont have a sata cable or any usb cable, can you please clarify please.

 

This is the type of adapter you want
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowI...-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter - Retail

 

I do apologise i went and got the wrong product, but i have since ordered something similar to that please tell me this is correct, thanks again.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=35057&C=SO&U=strat15

 

Unfortunately the maplin product is only for IDE drives. If I understand correctly, you have a SATA drive. You need to find an IDE/SATA to USB adapter.
The adapter you picked works for older drives using the wide gray ribbon cable; it will not work for drives using the thin red cable with the black plugs.

Maybe you can enquire at the maplin site about an adapter that allows for both types of drives and they will switch to a different product.

I found one http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48965
it does cost more because it works for two types of drives rather than just one type. It also includes a power adapter, which is good. That way the external drive is not dependent on the power of the USB port. It will use the power from the mains supplied through the adapter. That's probably another reason it costs more. Powered units are generally better than non-powered units.

 

ok well i have the product you suggested i plugged it in can hear it working, if the hard drive is working where or how do i access the data on there ? when i go into device manager i can see it, when i open computer its not listed, does this mean its knackered ?

 

right click on the icon My Computer. click on Computer Managment, then go to disk managment. see if it is listed there. if it is it might be grabbing a drive letter already used. you can change that by right clicking on the drive partion. one of the options is change drive letter.

 

Im running vista, under device manager,then disc drives it lists 2 disc drives one being the laptop the other is the sata drive labeled as wdc usb device.

 

ok i found it as unallocated, ive now created a simple volume labeled it F drive, now its formatting its self is this right, and if there is data wont this be now wiped off ?

 

Yes, formatting removes all the data.

I guess you can then put the formatted drive into the Dell and do a clean windows install WITHOUT RAID. You would then have two working independent hard drives.

If the Dell currently has one SATA drive in it, what happens when you try and boot up?

If the RAID was a mirrored setup, I'd think that the current drive would have everything it needs to boot up and run.

 

yes it is mirrored, but is the reason the sata disk formatted itself was due to currupt data ? all i did was label it as F drive, as it is mirrored does this then mean the other sata in the dell will also be currupt ? i was told yesterday that if i replaced the hard drive with just one 300gb for example the pc wouldnt be as fast, compared to two 150gb drives, is that true ? only it will cost double for two !

I havnt tried booting up the dell again yet as it took hours to formatt the sata via the adapter/laptop i had to go bed and leave to formatt lol.

If it is all because of a currupt disk, what could cause this ? i have a few possibilities of my own that i suspect

1.Sabotage, Someone i know was on my pc before this happened did something like maybe delete the os ! would that cause this ?

2. The same day i found it not working my trip switch in my house had gone and so could it have been a power surge ?

 

Sorry, I don't use RAID so I can't answer your questions.

Power surges can disrupt and corrupt windows. People who have had power go out, come back to discover the computer won't boot.

 

Well i got fed up with it, i did a fresh install and now its saying run chkdsk corrupt files

 

Well i did a raid 0 configuration and did a clean install of vista, although in the bios it still says onboard sata (not present ) which i do not understand as everything seems to be working ok, if some one can explain ? thanks.:confused

 

you got me there, I would have to sit in front of the system to figure that one out. hopefully some one can answer that one for you.

 

hi yeah its a bit confusing, i even tested the hard drive with a utility frm western digital and that failed with the cable test ! But my pc is working fine.