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6 Posts
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294695
January 14th, 2009 16:00
No boot device available
Saw there were a lot of threads with this same heading, but none of them seemed to be specific to the issue I am dealing with.
I have a Dell Dimension 8400 with BIOS v.A02. For the past few years I had this system configured with a RAID L1 setup with two WD Caviar 250GB SATA drives. I was running out of room, so I decided to backup my data and upgrade to a RADI L1 setup with two WD Green 1TB SATA drives.
Setup the drives through the Intel RAID configuration utility into a system partition (RAID ID 0) & a data partition (RAID ID 1). Unfortunately, the PC doesn't ever recognize the bootable WinXP cd. I always get an error that "No boot device available - strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility".
I've tried reverting to the BIOS default settings, installing a different CD-ROM, rearranging the boot order so only CD-ROM & USB are enabled, and even disabiling everything except the CD-ROM drive... furthermore, I was also able to boot another laptop from this same CD.. nothing seems to work & I am getting extermely frustrated! :emotion-12:
Any help on why the BIOS isn't recognizing the drive would be greatly. Based on the various things I have tried, it seems to be a BIOS specific issue.
Thanks!
JMH
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imapulse
6 Posts
0
January 14th, 2009 16:00
Also, if I press F12 to go straight into the "Boot Device Menu" & select the "Onboard or USB CD-ROM Drive" option, then I get a different error message that the "Selected boot device not available - strke F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utiltiy".
mtabernig
208 Posts
0
January 14th, 2009 21:00
You have done every thing I would have done. However, one thing is missing.
Have you double check that the CD drive and make sure it is working properly?. I strongly suspect that the laser om the CD is out. if you have another drive handy you can swap them and try again.
The DVD laser, if it is a combo drive, may still working. Try to copy your boot disk into a DVD and try that way.
imapulse
6 Posts
0
January 14th, 2009 22:00
Howdy, yes I setup the original RAID L1 several years ago with the same Windows CD. Which is what makes this so peculiar to me - that I have booted and installed a very similar setup. Maybe it is because, the new drives are SATA II vs SATA I in my original setup, but from what I have read onlien SATA II is supposed to be backwards compatible... hmph! =)
imapulse
6 Posts
0
January 14th, 2009 22:00
Earlier, I tried to sub in another CD drive I had, but got the same error... you did bring up a good point that it only seems to try and boot from the primary CD drive, so I am going to try and change the dvd drive to be the primary and disable the other drive. I will let you know, thanks!
[/quote]
HALLELUJAH!! I unplugged the CD drive & set the DVD drive to be the Master & it recognized the boot CD!!! I am so excited that I would jump around if I wasn't so worried about the boot CD being disturbed ;-) Cheers!
mybesteffort
27 Posts
0
January 14th, 2009 22:00
Wow, that's cool :emotion-2:
regards,
mybesteffort -0%
imapulse
6 Posts
0
January 14th, 2009 22:00
Earlier, I tried to sub in another CD drive I had, but got the same error... you did bring up a good point that it only seems to try and boot from the primary CD drive, so I am going to try and change the dvd drive to be the primary and disable the other drive. I will let you know, thanks!
mybesteffort
27 Posts
0
January 14th, 2009 22:00
Hi Imapulse,
Did you setup the RAID L1 few years back by yourself and the same Windows CD?
I suspect your Windows CD does not have the SATA Drivers.
Can you confirm the tools you are using supports SATA Drives installation?
regards,
mybesteffort - 5%
johnny batist
1 Message
0
October 12th, 2011 20:00
Mr.GuessALOT
1 Message
0
May 12th, 2013 16:00
Hey there buddh , funny cause im years late but I tried to upgradr to vista and I got same freakin problem and than , after reading what someone said about the backwards compatibility in the but up bla bla blah it turns out it might not be cause my friend gave me a w7 cd that he created ( as in he created the boot up) with the old bootup thingy and it worked!
Kind regards