XPS One 2710 w/SSD cache: Sudden "no bootable device"

Anyone? I have tried to remove the sync in the Intel RST OPROM, and decelerated the SSD. No luck. Also tried reboot in AHCI. I had some boot problems when updating to Win 8.1, 1.5 years ago. Perhaps this is related.

Or the HDD is gone...

Hi Dominion9000,

If the diags have passed on both the HDD and SSD, then the hard drive is fine.

Its good that you have tried few steps on your own to fix the issue. However, try these below steps and see if it works.

1. Restart and press f2 to enter BIOS -> go to advanced tab -> ensure the sata mode = RAID, go to boot tab -> ensure secure boot = disabled, boot mode = UEFI, load legacy oprom = enabled - save and exit

2. Restart the system and go to Intel Rapid Storage and reset disks to non raid - it will show as non raid disks once you have reset it successfully.

3. Restart system - check if it boots into windows. If not, then if you have the OS disc, insert the disc and boot off the disc from f12 on restart. Select repair your pc -> troubleshoot -> system restore if there are any restore points left / refresh / reset

Based on the windows updates error you have mentioned in your earlier post, I feel it could lead to an OS installation.

Keep us updated.

Sorry for the late reply.

I have tried your suggestions. Resetting to non-raid was unsuccessful.

From OS-disk (Win 8! Win 8.1 installed, do not have Win 8.1 disk):

- Tried automatic repair: Cannot repair

- Restore points: Error message: must select Windows version (?)

- Command promt (diskpart etc.): No disks or volumes detected (other than X:)

Hi Dominion9000,

Apologies for delay in response.

Now, I presume the system was shipped with w8 and you later upgraded to w8.1. Hence, you have the w8 disc.

When you insert the OS disc into the drive, what is the last screen you are able to get to?

The system will by default choose X: as it refers to the source which is the OS disc. So, you would have to manually choose C:\ and try the repair commands - "bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec/ fixboot, bootrec /rebuildbcd" - these are 3 different commands and you would have to perform them on both X: and C: to make sure the repairs complete (although the repair on X is void as it is only the ODD and not HDD - for some reason - MS threads have included this step).

If this does not work, then I would advise to perform a clean install - Let me know and I can provide you with the steps to low-level format of the HDD and perform a clean install if required.

fixmbr and fixboot worked fine. However, after rebuildbcd and answering YES this message appeared: "volume does not contain a recognized file system. please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted."

Hi Dominion9000,

Is this the case for both C: and X: sources? I would advise you to perform a clean installation of the OS.

• Boot off the OS disc. After choosing the keyboard and language options, select repair computer / or press shift + f8 - it should open the command prompt.
• Once you are at the command prompt, type in - "diskpart" -> "list disk" -> "select disk 0" -> "clean" -> "select disk 1" -> "clean" -> "exit" -> exit ----NOTE---------- "->" means enter
  
• After restart, get to the OS setup, keyboard and language options - then select Install Now - check this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thcbA8-2dS4 - from 3:33min to 5:07 min - this should help you setup a clean install
  

You can ignore the product key part, as the product key is not required for Dell OEM discs. Also, I could not find a better and easier video than this for reference.

Keep us updated.

Yes, both C and X.

Ok, I'll try a clean install. I have done it a couple of times before and I have the Dell tutorial from the last time.

Since I most likely will upgrade to Windows 10, is it possible to the clean install with Win 10 directly? Provided that I can download/get a Win 10 ISO. Or do I need to clean install Win 8 --> upgrade to Win 8.1 --> upgrade to Win 10. It seems that one can download the Win 10 ISO from Microsoft at least.

Hi Dominion9000,

If you are able to procure a copy of W 10, then you can choose to clean install W 10 on the system. However, there is a drawback. This system has not been tested for W10. Dell would not release the drivers for W10 for this model. And the older OS drivers are incompatible to work with W10. Of late, many customers who have tried the same, have been reporting issues with no boot on the system.

Secondly, if W 10 works on your system and later you have issues, you would not be able to downgrade to W8.1 if you have done a clean install of W10. The downgrade / rollback option is only available if you have upgraded the OS from W8.1 to W10.

My suggestion, is to clean install W8.1 and stick with it, unless you choose to try your luck with W10.

Hi,

I have had a similar problem with a new XPS8700 with Win7 and SRT cache that was working fine until I simply added a new HDD to my system and afterwards it would not boot with "no boot device available". I have lodged a support call but the proposed remedy is "replace motherboard" etc.

Everything hardware-wise seems fine (diagnostics etc) and the system partitions are all there (all I did was plug in another SATA cable!) I then removed the new HDD but the system is still yet to boot. I've tried all of the above "boot" options and I end up in the C:\ drive prompt going nowhere.

Have also tried repair disk to no avail.

I spent 3 weeks building my new system and I'd like it back if possible.

Hi sea-bah,

What is the size of the HDD that you tried installing? Is that a raw drive or does it contain an OS? Did you make any changes in BIOS? What is the BOOT option and secure boot set to in BIOS?  Could you reply with the service request# for the call you have made to Dell, so I can check the case logs? Did you try disabling the accelerated partition in the Intel Raid control page immediately following the Dell logo during startup? And reset disks to non RAID?

Keep us updated.

Hi,

The HDD was a 2TB without any OS but had data partitions. In desperation I reset the BIOS to default at one time, which probably deactivated the SRT/RAID startup and why I ended-up on the c:\ partition but got no further.

SR#

BIOS reset based on service call advice:

- Secure Boot: disabled

- Load Legacy: enabled

- Boot Mode: legacy

However, since logging the S/R I have since managed to re-boot by (process of elimination):

1) deactivated BIOS RAID

2) used Repair Disk to rebuild bootmgr

This process made the RECOVERY partition active rather than the first FAT partition (where I was getting the C:\ prompt initially) but all is OK now with C:\ being the Win7 OS. It has also made the SSD separately visible in Win7 but I have not yet used it.

Is it likely that the original problem (ie plugging in another SATA cable/disk) was simply because the new HDD was not recognised by the RAID/Intel SRT cached setup? It seems that the RAID feature is an "all -or-none" BIOS setting?

Q1: How can I get back to the original SSD/cache arrangement (not sure that I want to)?

Q2: Assuming that the shipped arrangement is desirable for any future use of RECOVERY, can I now swap the active from RECOVERY back to the FAT (currently seen as V:\ by Win7) using:

bcdboot c:\Windows v:

then make the v: partition active etc (then hide it plus RECOVERY later)

Appreciate your advice.

So you are saying that there will be no DELL drivers for Win 10 for the XPS 2710 - ever? The XPS 2720 is one of the approved models for Win 10. What makes this model so different from the 2710 that Dell do not care to provide the drivers for the 2710? The 2710 isn't that old...

Hi sea-bah,

Thank you for the update.

I have checked the service request info and confirmed that the issue reported to the team has been marked resolved as per your advise.

The Aptio setup utility has 2 options for sata mode - RAID or AHCI. RAID is set to work if you setup hardware level RAID 0 or RAID 1 or the Intel RST version - all three requiring 2 HDD. I am suspecting the reason, that it did not detect the HDD could be the BIOS reset defaults might have changed the settings.

A1: Now, if you want to use the SSD acceleration, you would need to change the sata mode to RAID in BIOS and then re-install OS on the primary HDD, install the IRST drivers and setup acceleration on the SSD. Although this is designed to increase the caching speed and performance, you would not notice the difference unless you are working on heavy graphical programs like designing or development or video editing. This is as per Intel forums. If you would like to install the same anyway, let me know, I can give you a detailed step by step info on how to reinstall the OS and setup acceleration.

A2: When the onsite tech visited and fixed the system, did he reinstall the OS or did you happen to do it yourself? The active partition seen as V: - is the OS partition you are referring to? It should be seen as C: by default, if a clean install has been done. For the secondary 2TB HDD, you could go to disk management and change the volume label or info as required. Copy the data off the partition, format it as NTFS (FAT is old tech - for W7 - standard is NTFS - for W8 onwards - GPT) and then restore your data back and you should be set.,

Let me know if you have any other questions.