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dell dimension 3100C - no boot device available


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#1
moseley1

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hi,
i have recently changed my hard drive from a western digital sata 80 gb to a western digital 1tb on my dell dimension 3100C and i am getting error message no boot device avaiable,

"Press f1 to continue, f2 for setup"
So i pressed f1 and I got a new option that said
"Boot device not available"

"press f1 to retry, f2 for setup"
So i went into the bios setup and noticed that it did detect the harddrive, when i put the old hard drive in it works straight away ,
please can anyone help?
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#2
phillpower2

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:welcome: moseley1

Before the new HDD can be used as the standalone storage device it must be formatted and an OS (operating system) installed on it, there is a procedure for this but before I explain it can I ask do you have an OS disk such as XP, Vista or Windows 7.

NB: Also please note that some earlier OSs do not recognize the full storage capacity of larger HDDs.
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#3
moseley1

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hi,
i do not have the os disc until tommorow, but i have an os disc for vista, i also have an windows xp disc
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#4
moseley1

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hi,
also i have only one slot for a hard drive ?
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#5
phillpower2

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Hello moseley1

The procedure for installing the OS is the same, do you prefer XP or Vista, what is on the original HDD.
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#6
moseley1

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hi,
the original is windows XP
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#7
phillpower2

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I recommend that you install XP then as it ensures that the correct drivers are available.

When you have the XP disk do the following please;

Change the Boot Sequence in your BIOS
Reboot the system and at the first post screen (where it is counting up memory) start tapping the appropriate button that allows you to access the BIOS ( F1, F2, Del or F8 etc)
This will enter you into the BIOS/CMOS
Find the Advanced area and click Enter
Look for Boot Sequence or Boot Options and highlight that click Enter
Now highlight the first drive and follow the directions on the bottom of the screen on how to modify it and change it to the DVD/ CD drive
Change the second drive to the C or Main Drive
Once that is done then click F10 to Save and Exit
You will prompted to enter Y to verify Save and Exit.
Place the XP disk in the DVD/CD drive.
Click Y and the system will now reboot with the new settings.

Follow the on screen messages to install XP, be sure that you choose the Full NTFS format option as it will help with a clean installation.

Additional information for you to read while you are unable to carry out the installation;

Dell are very picky about driver installation and they must be installed in the correct order once you have installed XP, how you obtain the correct drivers http://support.dell....drivers_program and the order in which the drivers should be installed http://support.dell....4&isLegacy=true

Can you tell us what version of XP it is please so that we can check it will recognize a 1TB HDD.
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#8
moseley1

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hi,
i am using windows xp with service pack 2
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#9
phillpower2

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There are different versions such as XP Home and XP Pro for example, which version do you have.

Some good news is that there are Vista 32-bit drivers available so you do also have that option http://www.dell.com/...dimension-3100c

Can I just check that you have the 25 digit product key for both disks and that the product keys are not in use on another computer.
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#10
moseley1

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hi,
it s xp pro
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#11
phillpower2

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All good then :thumbsup:

When you are asked what size partition you would like to create for XP make it about 20GB as this will give you plenty of room to add SP3 and the many other updates you will need to install now and over the next 12-13 months when support for XP is discontinued http://support.micro...n=en-gb&c2=1173

Can I just check that you have the 25 digit product key for both disks and that the product keys are not in use on another computer.

What is the answer please.
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#12
moseley1

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hi,
i have the product key for the windows xp it is only used on one other computer , i will get the other disc tommorow
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#13
phillpower2

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hi,
i have the product key for the windows xp it is only used on one other computer , i will get the other disc tommorow


If the product key is in use on any other computer you cannot use the same product key with this computer, if you tried to reuse the product key not only would the activation fail you would also be violating the licence agreement.
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#14
moseley1

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Hi,
I have tried all the steps and changed the profile in bios and still get no boot device available , any thoughts?
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#15
phillpower2

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Hello moseley1

From my reply #2

Before the new HDD can be used as the standalone storage device it must be formatted and an OS (operating system) installed on it


Please clarify, do you have an operating system disk such as Windows XP or Vista in the DVD/CD drive and nothing is happening.
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