Dell Laptop - Not bootable device selected

StickyMcGinty

Keep getting this just after the initial BIOS screen on my dell laptop.

"NO bootable device selected, press F1 to retry or F2 for setup"

i've ran the internal NIC bootup thing and it says no hard drive detected, check cable or somthing

the setup diagnostic program says no hard drive detected aswell???

it was woking perfectly fine last night, and i get this this morning

anyway is it worth taking out the hard drive from under the laptop and making sure its in right? cant see how it could have come undone though.

any suggestions appreciated.

Vinny

CiaranC

First thing that springs to mind is hard drive failure. You should reseat the cables etc. as a matter of course.

If its still under warranty Dell will replace the hard drive.

StickyMcGinty

yea its only a month old. how do i reseat the cables?

reaks of hard drive failure cause the primary hard drive in device info is {none} and maybe i'm paranoid but i think theres a subtle clicking sound coming from it. any way to recover the data?

CiaranC

Clicking noise is consistant with HDD failure alright. The HDD is most likely in a bay accessable at the side of the laptop secured with a small screw. Pop it out and back in. Im not too well up on Dell form factor, check the documentation.

If the HDD has failed, there is no way of recovering the data without great expense. There is a remote chance that it may boot another time or two. Keep a backup next time!

StickyMcGinty

yea its hard not to get thick at my sister whos laptop it is, about her not backing it up, but in fairness it is only 1 month old, i'd never expect a HD failure in that short amount of time tbh.

one other thing ciaran, when i take out the samsung HD of the inspiron, theres a black tape with an arrow pointing out on it, would it make any sense to remove that?

CiaranC

AFAIK the back tape is for models in which the HDD lies flat in a central bay, it allows you to pull the drive forward and then up to remove it.

Ive opened HP boxes, imaged them and then brought them to site where they've failed when I powered them up again. Youd be amazed.

StickyMcGinty

cheers again ciran, i'm gonna try get the data off the drive by some means, nay suggestion? is it worth buying a HDD enclosure and trying to hook it up to another pc or what would you suggest??

cheers for all this btw, your a star!

CiaranC

Ive done this for a few punters with a cheap ebay USB HDD enclosure. Might take several attempts to get the drive to spin up, or it might not work at all. Ive seen disks spin up, be readable for a few minutes, then fail again, requiring resuming copying data off a few times. A USB enclosure is handy to have anyway so its worth a shot.

Only thing is Dell will want the faulty before they'll give a replacement, so this might entail a bit of downtime for your sister while you work on it.

StickyMcGinty

shes more concerned about the data though so she'll listen up hopefully

gonna try the freezer trick that i've seeen mentioned, worth a crack anyway! i think maplins do HDD enclosures so i can get it all sorted quick and easy, cheers for all the help ciaran!