Hard drive crashed

Question

Okay, i've searched the forum but can't seem to find what i need.

My hard drive crashed a couple of days back and i wasn't able to make a recovery disc/usb drive. I ran through the pre-boot setup and the only thing that failed was the hard drive, so i ordered another one and installed it. Re-ran pre-boot and everything is showing good, even in the full diagnostics. Now my screen just shows "no boot device available" "SATA 0 &2 INSTALLED/ 1&3 NONE" "F1 TO RETRY BOOT/F2 TO RUN SETUP"

Like i said, i wasn't able to get a recovery disc to boot from, the 3847 was preloaded with Windows 10 and i don't know anyone who has a computer where i could create a boot disc/usb. I contacted dell and they said i'd have to create an recovery image which would be "provided during the 1st boot". But like i said, i'm not able to boot the system to get the image and hitting F1 does nothing.

What am i not doing correctly (besides taking it to someone that knows a little about Computers, lol)?

speedstep · Answer

@rodnocker1

Please press the blue Accept as Solution button below if this answers your question.

3847 would have winows 8 not 10. 10 however works fine setting F2 SATA Operation to AHCI and then F12 booting from

OEM WIN10 DVD works fine. There are no soft fixes for physically

bad hard drives. You replace them.

2TB 3.5 HDD

fireberd · Answer

There is NO Windows on the new drive. Windows must be installed on the new drive.

Since you failed to make the recovery image, Windows will have to be downloaded on another PC and a bootable USB flash drive created, that can be used to install Windows.

Here is the instructions on using the Media Creation tool to make a bootable flash drive, from the tenforums.

Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10 | Tutorials (tenforums.com)

With no recovery image, a W

fireberd · Answer

PC companies quit including CD's a long time ago.  Reason the procedure was there for the user to create it.  If its any consolation, you are not the only to wind up with no backup.

rodnocker1 · Answer

10-4, i already had that figured out, lol.

There was no warning on the hard drive. It just suddenly went out. My Windows started stalling so i went to restart it and nothing, so no backup available. I knew there was nothing on the new hard drive i purchased but have wondered why Dell didn't include the Windows backup CD. I guess i'll try to find someone near me to make me a backup. Thanks!

rodnocker1 · Answer

So here's another question. I don't have a flash drive that's "at least 16 gigs" but have 1 coming. I believe i can go to my Wife's job and download the recover onto a flash drive then load that onto my new hard drive. I can't locate my License Key for the Windows program that originally came loaded (again, i may be WRONG but i know i was running Windows 10 on my Dell because the Government Agency i was working for was still running Windows 7 and i commented several times to them that i couldn't believe they were still running 7 and i had 10).

Anyway, do you believe Dell will have my license key on record that i could get sent back to me or will i have to buy another license key? Looking on line, there are a lot of "options" and prices out there, so it's really tough trying to figure out if the $XX.xx priced "license key" is real or just a scam.

Inspiron 3501 Shiv · Answer

If you have Microsoft account, and it was signed in with above computer with hdd crashed, then you don't need license or product key, while doing windows setup, just sign in with your microsoft account, it will automatically get licensed, and if not, then you have to buy one. You can ask dell, but it  might not help.

speedstep · Answer

@rodnocker1

Please press the blue Accept as Solution button below if this post answers your question. Dell stopped shipping cd/dvd with os as early as 2006 with the media reduction program.

Windows 10 is the only recovery image available

DELL Windows Recovery

if your model did not ship with 10 the recovery image will not be available. XP, Vista, 7, 8.0 are End of life end of support from Dell And Microsoft.

Easiest recovery for inspiron 3847 is OEM WIN10 dvd. The USB 2.0 FLASH DRIVE RECOVERY OPTION also works. Setting F2 sata operation to AHCI and F12 booting the DVD or flash drive.

OEM Windows 10 DVD

can be purchased to recover a dell that started with at least windows 7 and 4 gigs of ram.

rodnocker1 · Answer

I Truly Appreciate Everyones input here. I ended up getting my BIL's Laptop and going to Microsoft to create the Windows 10 Recovery Image USB. After loading the Image, I was able to go to Microsoft and re-install Windows 10. It didn't ask for a License key or anything, it just worked. Naturally, I wasn't able to recover pretty much any of my Information/sites/passwords, etc but my Computer is back up and I didn't have to buy a new one.

So Thank You to Everyone!

speedstep · Answer

@rodnocker1

Please press the blue Accept as Solution button below if this answers your question.

3847 would have winows 8 not 10. 10 however works fine setting F2 SATA Operation to AHCI and then F12 booting from

OEM WIN10 DVD works fine. There are no soft fixes for physically

bad hard drives. You replace them.

2TB 3.5 HDD

Inspiron Desktops

Hard drive crashed

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