XPS One 2720, No Bootable Device/No Recovery

Hi nobbyv,

Thanks for posting.  Apologies that your system is not performing as expected.

Unfortunately, it sounds like either your hard drive has some corrupted sectors or is getting ready to expire.  Have you run a systems diagnostics yet?  There are some extensive hard drive tests that can be done.  Try pressing F12 at startup or if you can get it to boot run Dell SupportAssist.  Make a note of any error messages encountered and post back.  If there are none, then it could indicate either software or a driver error.

If you still require assistance and the system is under warranty, you may contact me privately. Be sure to include your personal information (name, address, telephone, email) and your computer's service tag number in your message. Thanks.

If there is no warranty, then you could contact our Out of Warranty team to get a quote for a paid service request. 

Robert,

See my post. I ran the Dell ePSA test, which said the hard drive is fine. Is there another test I can run? I'm quite certain the AIO is out of warranty.

Hi nobbyv,

Unfortunately, based on the service tag number, the warranty has expired. You can await a reply from other community members or contact the Dell Out of Warranty Support Team.

If you can boot from the Recovery drive, you might try the Startup Repair option.  Win 10 seems to be prone to mess up boot devices.  Since some upgrades actually change that process it may not put it back correctly so basically, the boot system may be corrupted.

Do you have any system image backups you have made for the system? 

I wish I could help, but luckily I have not experienced this problem with any of my systems.

Since Win 10 is already activated on that system, you could even do a clean install.  But go through some of the Repair options to see if anything helps and it may take several (3) runs for certain problems to be corrected.

Thanks, but unfortunately, the Startup Repair option doesn't work either. 

Since you're able to see the Start Up option in the windows 10 installation media, try using Command Prompt option to see if that will get the computer up and running again. You can enter such commands as mentioned in the video in link below.

https://youtu.be/keVTS3-9Akg?list=PLdLDGmnHB07NVpbsbTGeiW-NLjpVZufxB

Also, you can check for hard drive corruption by entering chkdsk and the letter that match your hard drive on your computer, see link below) in the command prompt

https://www.disk-partition.com/articles/how-to-fix-corrupted-hard-drive-using-cmd-7201.html

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@nobbyv wrote:

Robert,

See my post. I ran the Dell ePSA test, which said the hard drive is fine. Is there another test I can run? I'm quite certain the AIO is out of warranty.

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I'm assuming you ran a Thorough Test on the hard drive in Dell ePSA ? If no, stroll down to Diagnostic again and then click on it. After quick tests, click on Hard Drive, and then Thorough Test Mode

@LSUFAN51 

Yes, I made sure the "Thorough Test" option was checked. Came back all clear. 

Tried the command line instructions in the video. Told me I wasn't authorized for the scanos command. Also, when I try to run chkdsk on the hard drive, the hard drive doesn't appear as an available drive, even though it DOES show up in the BIOS.  

This problem may have many causes and is hard to pin down exactly what is happening.

When you look at your Boot Device Menu, there should be a Windows Boot Manager.  If there is, choose it and continue booting.  Some of the situations involved may range from a bad drive to corruption in the Boot process, whether it is the original boot files or follow on files required to complete the boot.

The Bootrec /scanos will look for any installs not already listed in the BCD store.  It may or may not help but the Rebuildbcd may.  During an upgrade, the Boot process is changed in several ways and is supposed to be restored prior to finishing the upgrade process.  If part of that is not completed, your system is left in an unknown state.

If you can get into the Command prompt, try running the command below and see if you can get us a picture or a copy of the readout.  This shows the BCD store and should confirm if it has the required entries.

bcdedit

Other command which might be useful, under specific conditions are the bcdboot command which will replace the BCD store with a copy of the template in the Windows folder.  So the command depends on the correct drive letter for the OS partition.  It is normally C but you can determine that by using Diskpart first.

diskpart

list vol

exit

Use the drive letter of the of the Windows partition in the command below where C is.

bcdboot C:\Windows

If it works, your system should boot but you should make sure the Windows Boot Manager is set as the primary boot device in the Bios.

If the system does boot normally, then you may want to run the bootrec /rebuildbcd command again.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/bcdboot-command-line-options-techref-di

See attached pic after running the bcdedit command. I then tried the bcdboot C:\Windows, and get a list of 25-30 different possible commands (Extend, Format, etc). Is this a "normal" boot, or am I expecting something else?

You attachment shows some differences from my system.  The note at the top about Not enough memory looks a little strange..

But otherwise, it looks normal.  As long as you have the Windows Boot Manager selected as primary boot device, it should boot normally.  If the system is not seeing the drive and cannot find the BCD store, then we need to find why it is not seeing the drive, since you can see it in the command window.

One thing I would like to confirm is that the GUID numbers for the default and displayorder in the Windows Boot Manager agree and that same GUID number shows as the identifier for the Windows Boot Loader.  Or, are they all three the 94cce5b7 number..

Use this command to show GUID numbers for all entries.

bcdedit /v

There was, at one time, a procedure for setting up another mount on a drive which would allow the system to boot to that.  It was done in the Bios and pointed at another folder on the EFI system partition.  I will need to find those threads to see if that might be relevant.

Edit:  This is one thread you might check.  I have not actually done this so I cannot guarantee anything.  Since the instructions are for another system, where certain options may be located could be different for your system.

https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops-General-Read-Only/No-bootable-devices-found-XPS-15-9550/td-p/5101242

Of course, if it is a 2720, it could be old enough for a hard drive to fail.