[donnamcglothin]

Ordered used Dell Inspiron 4150 on Ebay. Can't get into it. It says "Primary hard disk drive 0 not found" the "No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility". It says this everytime I push F1. HELP!!!!!

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Is there a hard drive in the system?

[rshaffer61]

Is there a hard drive in the system?

[donnamcglothin]

Yes. I'm not sure if I can make boot disk off home computer. I am going to try to put it on a flash drive. I'm running System Mechanic first. My home cp has that "Security Tool" spyware & I am trying to get rid of it completely. I knock it down by going to task manager, but can't figure out how to get rid of it completely. Any suggestions?

[rshaffer61]

Wait so the system does boot or it doesn't?
Flash drive will only work if laptop has the ability to boot to a usb or flash drive. That would be in the bios boot sequence area.
Did you open the laptop up and make sure there was a hard drive in it?

[donnamcglothin]

It doesn't boot. When I go to F12, it has:
CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
Cardbus NIC
Onboard MIC
Diagnostics

[donnamcglothin]

There is a hard drive in it. It's in the front & it can be pulled out.

[donnamcglothin]

Where is the bios boot sequence area?

[donnamcglothin]

When i push F2, 7 pages of stuff comes up. On page 2 it has:
*************Boot Order*****************
Diskette Drive
Internal HDD
CD/DVD/CD-ROM Drive
Modular Bay HDD
Cardbus NIC
APR Nic
Onboard Nic
There is an arrow to the left of Diskette Drive, Internal Hdd, & CD/DVD/CD-ROM Drive. All that is on the left of the screen.

On the right of the screen, it says:
This category controls operating system file search order.
CAUTION: (Flashing)
DISK DRIVE LETTERS MAY CHANGE IF THIS SETTING IS MODIFIED!

The System searches for operating system files in this list. If the first device is not bootable, not present, or not enabled, the system will move to the second device. This continues until the system boots or the list is exhausted.

[donnamcglothin]

When I run diagnostic, on Preboot System Assessment. it says:
DST Short Test, FAIL
Error Code: 1000:0141
Msg" No drive detected

I burned a disk off my home cp of Program Files. What else do I need?

[rshaffer61]

Do you have a original genuine XP installation disk? If so do the following.

How To Run Chkdsk /r from Recovery Console:


How to run checkdisk from recovery console (Windows xp). (Courtesy dsenette)

• Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
  Note:Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
• When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
  Note:If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
• When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
• At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following then press Enter:
  

  chkdsk /r

• Allow this to run UNDISTURBED until completed (45 min or so)
• Report any errors

[donnamcglothin]

No, I have never had a Windows XP disk. Husband does, but lost codes , his is Windows XP Professional. I'm trying to make one, but I've never done this before. (on home cp) Sometimes, I feel like giving up. Whoever sold this laptop should not have sold it like this.