'no bootable device' when trying to reinstall windows XP

Question

The HDD failed on my Inspiron 5150 (it made funny clicking noises), so I bought and installed a new one.

When I try to re-install Windows XP from the system CD it flashes for a few seconds then says "no bootable device". I have tried all the solutions on this forum - pressed F12 to go to one-time boot - changed the boot order to put CD top - but it fails to read the disk.

On another PC I copied the disk to a USB memory stick, but I get the same when I try to boot from that instead.

The CD was unused until now. It seems to work in the other PC - it goes to its initial menu at least. (Of course I dont want to reinstall the working PC.)

All the internet help I can find is about how to make it boot from a CD (f12, boot order, ...). I HAVE DONE THAT and it still will not boot! Any other ideas?

al_devon · Answer

Yes it sees the HDD. If I enable it on the boot list, I of course get the error message "no boot sector on hard disk".

I have run the "diagnostics" test on the F12 menu. I runs through OK for 5min including a Hard Drive test. It eventually gives up with "No Diagnostic Utility Partition found." I inserted the Dell Drivers & Utilities CD but it would not boot off that either.

ejn63 · Answer

Does the BIOS see the hard drive (F2)?  If not, check to make sure you transferred the blade adapter from the back of the original drive to the new one.

ejn63 · Answer

If the system won't boot from that or the OS CD, there's something wrong with the CD/DVD drive - you can either replace it or use an external USB CD drive.

ejn63 · Answer

No, but simply copying the contents of the CD to the memory stick will not make the flash drive bootable.  You can, but you must make it bootable another way. http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm

al_devon · Answer

I copied the CD onto a memory stick, but it will not boot from that either.  Is there copy protection on the Windows CD to stop this working?

Sam.Morales · Answer

No, but simply copying the contents of the CD to the memory stick will not make the flash drive bootable. You can, but you must make it bootable another way.

http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm

Is the link invalid? Is there something wrong with the link? It cannot be opened.

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"no bootable device" when trying to reinstall windows XP

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