No cd/dvd rom drive in bios detected

Hi, 2buddy4u:

Here are a couple ideas. First, your title says "No cd/dvd rom drive in bios detected." If your CD drive is not detected in the BIOS, the mostly likely cause is that the drive is not jumpered to cable select, which is the default configuration for IDE drives in all Dell desktops. Check that first. In addition, the system will only boot from the drive connected at the end of the IDE cable (master position in an IDE configuration).

Second, once the drive is detected, boot to the BIOS and go to the boot devices page. Configure this page so the CD drive is the only device listed. Exit saving changes with your OS disc in the drive. If you get the message, "No boot device detected. Insert system disk and press F1 to continue", just press F1 and the system will continue to attempt to boot from the CD drive. Eventually, it will work.

Finally, once the OS installation is proceeding, the next time the system boots, go back into the BIOS and re-enable the hard drive as the second boot device. You should leave the CD as the first device.

Ok I switched the IDE cable so the cd rom drive was on the end and the IDE hard drive was in the middle, i moved the jumper back to the cs and followed the rest of your instructions but it did not work, it still shows "not detected". Is there suppose to be a jumper on the IDE hard drive?? Thanks for your help!!

You can't run a 4700 on an IDE hard drive. You need an SATA hard drive. Are you sure about the model number?

Sorry, didn't see your post.

There's no problem having both a hard drive and a CD drive on the same IDE channel. Both devices must be jumpered to cable select and the CD drive must be at the end of the cable. Then check the BIOS to see if both devices are detected.

If they are not, unplug the IDE hard drive and try again.

Great, now everything is detected but it won't boot from the os disc. When i go into the boot device menu it says the cdrom drive -"diagnostics not supported". I hope this is an easy fix??? I appreciate all your help.

Ok, some progress. Try going into the BIOS and setting the CD as the first boot device and HDD as second. This is normally the best way to leave the boot device priority list.

Success!! Thanks so much for all your help.