Booting problem: Dell Optiplex 745

[LVO]

Dear community!

My parents got my grandparents a new PC. "New". It's a Dell Optiplex 745. It came with one Samsung SATA HDD (80GB) which was wiped. I've hooked it up to my own desktop, and installed Win7 on it.

However, when I put the the HDD back into the Dell, I got the error "No Bootable Devices". I've tried a few things, googled alot of shit, but I can't get it to work...

More info:
I flashed the newest BIOS (2.6.6 if I'm not mistaken) via the DOS menu.
The Dell has another (bigger) SATA HDD, but I unhooked it for now (it's sitting in its bay with data/power unhooked). It didn't come with the PC, it's from my own collection.
The Samsung HDD is hooked up to SATA-1.

Is there anyone who can help me?

Thanks in advance,

Lvo

P.S. I currently am not able to install Windows any other way then hooking it up to my own desktop (no DVD to put a Win7 installation on, no 4GB USB around).

 

[durgesh86]

Dear community!

My parents got my grandparents a new PC. "New". It's a Dell Optiplex 745. It came with one Samsung SATA HDD (80GB) which was wiped........................
.................
.................
P.S. I currently am not able to install Windows any other way then hooking it up to my own desktop (no DVD to put a Win7 installation on, no 4GB USB around).

Hi,
Would be really helpful to know what all you've tried. (So that we don't give the same solutions)
First check if the HDD is getting detected in the BIOS.
Then Select proper boot device in BIOS
Or else if there is an option to manually boot from a device (F12 or F10) Try that
If you've already done that, then check if the HDD settings in BIOS is set to SATA and not IDE (Actually try both, whichever works. Since its old IDE could work as well).
**Disconnect any other external storage devices (if attached)
**Installing with USB is a better option.

 

[LVO]

Hi,
Would be really helpful to know what all you've tried. (So that we don't give the same solutions)
First check if the HDD is getting detected in the BIOS.
Then Select proper boot device in BIOS
Or else if there is an option to manually boot from a device (F12 or F10) Try that
If you've already done that, then check if the HDD settings in BIOS is set to SATA and not IDE (Actually try both, whichever works. Since its old IDE could work as well).
**Disconnect any other external storage devices (if attached)
**Installing with USB is a better option.

I've tried anything that came up when googling this specific issue. Setting the bootorder (which wasn't an issue, as I only had 1 HDD attached), flashing the BIOS (which I successfully did), unhooking all USB devices (I only had a USB keyboard attached).

In the setup it does recognize the HDD (by make and model) but selecting it in my boot menu (F12, for me) didn't do anything - same error. It apparently is not recognised as a bootable device...

I searched for an option between IDE and SATA but the motherboard doesn't have an IDE port anyway, so that option is not in the BIOS settings either...

If you need any additional information, let me know.

Cheers,
L

 

[durgesh86]

I searched for an option between IDE and SATA but the motherboard doesn't have an IDE port anyway, so that option is not in the BIOS settings either...

If you need any additional information, let me know.

Cheers,
L

Ok.
When you installed an OS on this HDD there was an active OS on the same system( i guess your computer)
So what happens is that the HDD or the partition on that is not marked for booting
Reconnect the HDD to your system and mark the partition as active.
Follow this. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html
I would have typed it in an easier way but its kinda lengthy and right now i'm lazy.

 

[LVO]

Ok.
When you installed an OS on this HDD there was an active OS on the same system( i guess your computer)
So what happens is that the HDD or the partition on that is not marked for booting
Reconnect the HDD to your system and mark the partition as active.
Follow this. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html
I would have typed it in an easier way but its kinda lengthy and right now i'm lazy.

Allright, marked it as active, popped it back in the Dell...

Different error.
"bootmgr missing".

Do you have any ideas? Otherwise I can research this one on my own

Thanks, cheers,
L

 

[durgesh86]

Ok.
When you installed an OS on this HDD there was an active OS on the same system( i guess your computer)
So what happens is that the HDD or the partition on that is not marked for booting
Reconnect the HDD to your system and mark the partition as active.
Follow this. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html
I would have typed it in an easier way but its kinda lengthy and right now i'm lazy.

Allright, marked it as active, popped it back in the Dell...

Different error.
"bootmgr missing".

Do you have any ideas? Otherwise I can research this one on my own

Thanks, cheers,
L

Alright. Looks like you are going to make me type commands atlast *kidding

Pop in the HDD to your comp
Follow the same procedure to get to the command prompt (as i said ...lazy) (in my defense just had dinner)
type the following including setting the partition active (do this after setting partition active)
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd
Then reboot and check again on the Dell


S#!t....found a link for same http://www.7tutorials.com/command-prompt-fix-issues-your-boot-records

 

[LVO]

Alright. Looks like you are going to make me type commands atlast *kidding

Pop in the HDD to your comp
Follow the same procedure to get to the command prompt (as i said ...lazy) (in my defense just had dinner)
type the following including setting the partition active (do this after setting partition active)
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd
Then reboot and check again on the Dell


S#!t....found a link for same http://www.7tutorials.com/command-prompt-fix-issues-your-boot-records

[strike]I set the partition active via the Coputer management interface (on my own PC). If I go to cmd, E:/ (which is the sata HDD in question) it doesn't recognise the bootrec command (because I'm not in the system repair mode).

My comp runs Win7, any ideas on how to get to that command prompt (in sysrepair)?[/strike]

Edit: Got into sysrepair myself, running the commands now. Will update soon!

Thanks,
L

 

[LVO]

[
Alright. Looks like you are going to make me type commands atlast *kidding

Pop in the HDD to your comp
Follow the same procedure to get to the command prompt (as i said ...lazy) (in my defense just had dinner)
type the following including setting the partition active (do this after setting partition active)
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd
Then reboot and check again on the Dell


S#!t....found a link for same http://www.7tutorials.com/command-prompt-fix-issues-your-boot-records

Okay, Windows 7. Sysrepair ran from my main disk (D:, Win7 Installed). Went into CMD, selected my SATA HDD (E and ran the first two (operation completed), then ran the third, it found 0 windows installations.

Popped it back into the Dell: Same issue - still "bootmgr is missing".

Any ideas?

 

[durgesh86]

Okay, Windows 7. Sysrepair ran from my main disk (D:, Win7 Installed). Went into CMD, selected my SATA HDD (E and ran the first two (operation completed), then ran the third, it found 0 windows installations.

Popped it back into the Dell: Same issue - still "bootmgr is missing".

Any ideas?

Okay. This happened to me recently (the 0 installations found issue) It was a problem with my Power connector to the HDD -- just letting you know incase.

What i suggest is that since now the HDD is set to Primary and the MBR and boot sector is fixed, now reinstall and try again (i know its sounds illogical but most of the times it does work coz now Windows recognizes it as an Active partition.)

 

[J_E_D_70]

The odds of successfully installing windows on a hdd in one pc then moving it to a different pc are low, unless your source and target are nearly identical.

Best bet is to buy or borrow a usb for the install, assuming a pc that ancient will install from usb.