[Jmize]

Hello,my name is John.I have used the geeks to go website many times and I tell everyone I know about the site.Here is my issue.I have a Dell dimension E310.The hard drive stopped working.I replaced the hard drive and inserted the Dell windows xp disc.I keep getting a No boot device available message.I have went into the bios and set it to boot to the cd/DVD drive.I then tried to go back and load defaults.Same no boot device available message.I have done this one time before and had no problem.I am not sure what I am doing wrong.Thanks for any help you can give.

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Hello John

Some questions if I may;

Is the OS disk that you are using a Dell OEM or full retail Microsoft XP disk.
Is the new HDD detected in the BIOS.
If you restart the computer is the CD/DVD drive still listed as the first boot device and the HDD second,
Is the new HDD the IDE or SATA type.

[phillpower2]

Hello John

Some questions if I may;

Is the OS disk that you are using a Dell OEM or full retail Microsoft XP disk.
Is the new HDD detected in the BIOS.
If you restart the computer is the CD/DVD drive still listed as the first boot device and the HDD second,
Is the new HDD the IDE or SATA type.

[Jmize]

Hello,thanks for the reply.

The OS disc is a Dell OEM.
The new HDD is detected in the BIOS.
When I restart the computer the cd/DVD drive is still listed first & HDD is second.
The new HDD is SATA

Thank you

[phillpower2]

Hello again.

No boot device available message

As the new HDD and the CD/DVD drive are recognized in the BIOS my first suspicion is the installation disk, if that checks out ok the CD/DVD drive should be checked next in case it is not reading or transferring the data.

Sorry but I need to ask a lot of questions of you;

Is the disk the same as one of the three in the attachment below.
Can you hear the CD/DVD drive attempting to read the disk at any time.
Was the disk provided with the computer that you are attempting to install it on.
Have you tried the disk on another computer to see if the data can be accessed.

Is the replacement HDD new out of the packaging.
Is the new HDD connected to the same SATA port as the previous HDD was.
Are you using a new SATA cable.

You are welcome BTW

[Jmize]

Please forgive me for my slow response time.Today is the first day I have been able to take a look at the computer.I swapped out the cd/DVD drive and windows appears to be installing.I am so sorry,I should have checked that first.I will post again once Windows installs.Thanks for your time.
John

[phillpower2]

No worries John as we understand that you may have other responsibilities that come first.

I am pleased that you have made progress, thanks for the update and you are most welcome BTW

[Jmize]

One more question.I have went into the BIOS and restored the boot sequence back to factory settings.I have also tried the the boot sequence a few other ways.I keep getting a message "Floppy diskette seek failure-Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility". If I hit F1,it goes to the windows xp startup screen. Is there a way to fix this so I don't have to hit F1 each time I start up the computer? Thanks Again

[phillpower2]

If you go back into the BIOS you can disable the Floppy diskette seek failure by highlighting it, pressing Enter which will change it from Enabled to Disabled, press F10 to Save & Exit and then Y to confirm the changes, the system should then reboot and the message be gone.

[Jmize]

Everything is working great.Thank you so much for your patience & help.This website is amazing as always.

[phillpower2]

Glad we could help Jmize and thanks for the follow up

NB: You are welcome BTW