Hi HouseofTrains,

There seems to be an issue with the hard drive on your computer. I’d suggest that you run the diagnostics on the computer by following the steps mentioned below and check if there is any issue with the hardware on your system.

1. Turn on or restart the computer.
2. Immediately at the Dell logo screen, starting tapping the key once a second until the One Time Boot menu appears (if the computer boots to Windows turn the computer off and try again).
3. At the One Time Boot menu, press the arrow key to highlight Diagnostics, PSA+ or Enter ePSA, then press to begin the PSA.
4. Write down any error codes listed. Reply to us with the error codes.

I’d also advise you to reseat the hard drive on the computer by following the steps below in the link and check if it resolves the issue.

http://dell.to/VWcDMc

Please let me know if this helps.

Hi there,

First thing I'd like to check is whether or not these systems detect hard drives. In order to do this, can you please press F2 at the Dell Splash Screen on startup to enter the System Setup. Here, click the + sign next to Drives to expand the menu - you should see the word "Drives" as the 4th menu option, please click on this.

Make sure that SATA-0, SATA-1, SATA-2 and External SATA are ticked and look at the dialog box on the right hand side. Can you tell me what is listed in the right hand side for all 6 systems? If the hard drives are detected, you should see that it lists the Capacity of the hard drive underneath SATA-0.

If all 6 systems have hard drives listed in the System Setup, it may be the case that the systems do not have an operating system installed. In this case, you will need to install the operating system of your choice on the 6 systems.

Please let me know how you get on with the above step and I hope to hear from you soon.

Sorry it took a while to get back to you on this.  All 4 items are checked and this is what was listed:

SATA-0  Controller Serial ATA, Port SATA-0, Drive Details ST3250312AS, Capacity 250GB, This drive is controlled by the RAID BIOS

SATA-1  Controller Serial ATA, Port SATA-1, Drive Details (nothing), Drive ID TEAC, DVD-ROMDV-28SW

SATA-2  Controller Serial ATA, Port SATA-2

External SATA  Controller Serial ATA, Port External SATA, Drive ID Unknown

Drive 2 Not Found:  Serial ATA-SATA-2

Does any of this help?

Hi there,

Thanks very much for getting back in touch with us.

What the above tells us is that the hard drive is seen by the BIOS. At this point, I'd advise you to follow the steps that my colleague Ravi posted - this will run through the PSA tests which can help to determine if there is any hardware failures that can cause this.

If the PSA tests run through successfully and reseating the hard drive does not make any difference then it is likely that there is no operating system installed on the system which is why it cannot boot.

Please keep us informed about the PSA tests and we hope to hear from you soon.

I ran the report and these are the two outcomes from the initial test and the longer test:

No problems fount short test PSA build 4521

Pre-boot System Assessment Complete.  No Diagnostic Utility Partition Identified.  Please select OK to reboot your system.

I also reseated the hard drive and according to the link and it still did not start up.  Does this mean I need to purchase a new hard drive?

Thank you for your advice.

Hi there,

I would say at this point that there is nothing wrong with the system, hardware-wise. The main problem is that it doesn't seem to have been provided to you with any operating system. As you said that the system had been sold to you on the understanding that the systems had Windows 7 installed, I would advise you to contact the business that you purchased the system from to see if they can provide this to you.

Hey I'm having similar issues with the same system. What causes this to happen? I was using my dell computer with no issue and i put it to sleep. once i come back to it, i get the same error/missing hard drive message. at this point i'm going to replace it. 

Probably late, but in case not, and for future reference. I would suggest attempting to repair your operating system before junking the device. Windows can be tricky, especially on older hardware. Most likely you'll need to reinstall your operating system, or at least use Windows PE recovery environment. To do these things, you'll need to know:

*1. What version of Windows you are/were using, including whether it is Home/Pro/Etc. if you have a factory install cd, then you will easily be able to use this to reinstall.

**2. If you'd like to attempt to recover your current installation, you can search on Microsoft's support section to download Windows PE (this includes a step by step walk through).

*If you don't have your Windows installation cd/media, then you'll need to find someone with an install cd, or order the media from your computer manufacturer if it was pre installed on the device. Most companies will charge a fee for the media, typically 15-25 bucks. If you purchased a Retail version of Windows, you'll need to contact Microsoft and let them know your product key in order to receive new install media.

**You'll need either a USB Drive or a blank writable CD and disc burner to create the Windows PE repair media boot device

Most issues involve boot record errors when you have finished checking and confirming all hardware is working correctly, and recognized in the system BIOS, but still not able to boot to Windows.

One of my 5 Dell computers is an OptiPlex 780 (small form factor) that the user upgraded to Windows 10 and with it came Edge.  Yesterday the black screen appeared on the LCD monitor.  My hunch is that the is the black screen bug associated with graphics drivers due to Edge & Windows 10 automatic upgrades.  Does that sound reasonable?  The Windows 10 page say to boot from media in Safe Mode.  I downloaded the Media Tool to a USB drive and rebooted from shut off.  Nothing happened.  Is the 780 set up to boot from media, or if not how do I do so?

thanks