Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
8 Posts
0
47025
Inspiron 531 "No Boot Device Available"
OK so a few weeks ago my desktop was running fine, and I left on a week long trip out of state with it in hibernation. When I came back it was turned off, no big deal because my family was around. Then I tried booting it and got these two screens. First the Dell screen stayed on abnormally long, then I got this: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=694376330597583&l=7f9fd96c82 Then I tried booting from SATA 0 (Hard Drive rather than CD Drive) and got this screen: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=694376330597583&l=7f9fd96c82 Hitting F1 repeated the process and sent it to the first screen. Help? Thanks, Austin (P.S. I'm currently using my laptop to write this, as I have not been able to boot as some other people have with the same issue. Therefore, I can't run a troubleshoot/diagnostics test on the desktop seeing as I can't log on to get to the test, and it would be useless to run Dell tests on a Lenovo laptop!)
murishani047
8 Posts
0
July 1st, 2014 14:00
Philip_Yip
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
•
16K Posts
0
July 1st, 2014 15:00
We cannot see the screenshots. Facebook says the content is currently unavailable.
Please upload them to OneDrive and ensure and change the folder properties to make them publicly viewable.
Philip_Yip
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
•
16K Posts
0
July 2nd, 2014 15:00
Open up your desktop and check the cables to the hard drive. Its as if the computer is not seeing them plugged in.
murishani047
8 Posts
0
July 2nd, 2014 15:00
murishani047
8 Posts
0
July 2nd, 2014 15:00
OK here's the first screen.
Here's the second
Post edited by Philip Yip to embed the images.
murishani047
8 Posts
0
July 2nd, 2014 17:00
unfortunately it did not work. all that happened was the screens flipped order.
Philip_Yip
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
•
16K Posts
0
July 2nd, 2014 23:00
Press F2 and you should see the drives listed on the main submenu.
If the floppy disc is listed at the top, move down with the arrow keys and press enter and ensure its disabled so it does not boot looking for a floppy drive (which isn't there - error message).
Let me know if the hard drive and DVD drive show up on this menu as SATA 1 and SATA 2.
Once you have made changes select the Exit submenu by using the right arrow and ensure you save changes and exit.
Here someone has posted a video which may also help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBhIDvTx74A
murishani047
8 Posts
0
July 3rd, 2014 17:00
ok i disabled the floppy disk and it still did not work. it says sata zero none sata one cd drive and sata two and three none. sorry about the strange way i am typing my phone is having issues with the site.
Philip_Yip
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
•
16K Posts
0
July 4th, 2014 04:00
Can you take the SATA and power cable out of your CD/DVD drive and put them in your Hard Drive and recheck?
murishani047
8 Posts
0
July 4th, 2014 17:00
i can try but i do not know which cables those are
Philip_Yip
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
•
16K Posts
0
July 5th, 2014 06:00
The cables look like this the SATA Interface cable and the SATA power Connector.
You will have one of each in your Optical CD/DVD Drive and one of each in your HardDrive.
Try swapping the two SATA Interface Cables from the Optical Drive to the HardDrive.
See also the Owner's Manual which has a section explaining how to remove and replace the Hard Drive and Optical Drive - Page 120:
http://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_inspiron_desktop/inspiron-531_owner%27s%20manual_en-us.pdf
murishani047
8 Posts
0
July 6th, 2014 12:00
Philip_Yip
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
•
16K Posts
0
July 7th, 2014 00:00
Okay it appears you are having something showing up in SATA 0 whereas before you had nothing. So likely the drive is now showing and you need a new SATA cable.
Please enter the BIOS setup and go to the Boot tab this time. Ensure that Hard Drive is on the top above CD/DVD drive and floppy drive (if present).
If the system still fails to boot. Can you follow this procedure and boot off of Fedora or a Ubuntu Live USB to check if Linux can detect the hard drive:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/data-recovery-using-fedora/