No Hard Disk Drive In Boot Menu

[Caterina Haggins]

Ijust installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and everything was working then I updated to a new BIOS version flashed using Asus FlashUtility. The FlashUtility stated "process was successfully completed" but the next time I restarted my laptop, the BIOS popped up.

If your computer is having issues booting, has errors during boot, after adding hardware is running into issues, or you're having other abnormal system behaviors that cannot be resolved though any other method it may be necessary to reset the CMOS settings or load the default or fail-safe defaults as explained below.

super old thread, but enabling CSM as the last poster mentioned allowed me to finally get off the BIOS page when I upgraded my motherboard & CPU. I am still using my old HDD and SSD. Enabled CSM, saved, it restarted and lo and behold the Windows icon as per normal instead of the infuriating BIOS

:) Enable CSM (compatibility Support Module) and legacy boot. Your hard drives aren't showing up cos they were partitioned on the older MBR type. This is for most of the Windows 7 system and the upgraded ones to 10 when the newest GPT no only just an option but also a complicated process to do. On the next ones, 8, 8.1, and 10 the GPT partition type it's done automatically on drives that never had 7 or previous OS installed.

I want to keep win7 on my primary C:\ drive, and install Ubuntu (12.10) on a secondary drive (that I have yet to buy or install. I just want to be certain that I'm successful when I do this). If at all possible I'd also like it if when I start the computer I have the option to boot either Win7 or Ubuntu, like an account log in type thing where I just pick which drive I'm running with that day. And just to reiterate, I do not want to partition my C:\ drive or alter, change, or affect my Win7 system in any way.

The reason I'm still fairly uncertain about all of this, is that a lot of the guides I've read have been for earlier versions of Ubuntu. Also the vast majority of guides are about partitioning one drive to fit both OS'. I want two separate OS running from two separate drives that I can pick at boot. The guides I did find mentioned that there is some issue with the grub being installed on C:\ but the rest of the OS being installed on the other drive. Is this still the case? How do I avoid that?

They insert a small code pointing to actual location of bootloader. Like in Linux, This MBR contains Stage1 of GRUB (GRUB is a bootloader used in Linux) which loads a larger executable Stage2 that may located in other partition.

If you install Windows, and then Linux, GRUB Stage1 sits in MBR. Now other part of GRUB (the actual bootloader) contains the Windows bootloader location. Now when you select Windows from GRUB menu, Windows starts to load. This is called chain loading (GRUB loads first, then GRUB loads the Windows bootloader based on selection).

Install Ubuntu on that partition & install GRUB on 2nd disk's MBR not on first disk's MBR. Be careful here. See below image (just for demo purpose), you need to do everything in (probably) sdb.

Easiest way to do this is as suggested above. First, temporarily remove your first hard drive (the one with Windows on it). Second, install Linux to the second hard drive (which for now is the only one connected). Third, put your first hard drive back in, so that you now have two hard drives installed, each with its own OS. From there, it's a simple matter of pressing a key at boot to select your boot drive. For example, with a Dell machine you'd push the F12 key at boot, and this would bring up your menu to select the drive you want to boot from.

I probably do it the backwards way but I use the boot menu to boot to Lubuntu (F12 on this System MB) When I installed Lubuntu I dis connected all other drives in the system. Then I installed the grub on the Lubuntu drive. Windows can't see the Lubuntu drive, but Lubuntu can see the windows drive so I can access files on other drives in the system.

A native-boot VHDX can be used as the running operating system on designated hardware without any other parent operating system. This differs from a scenario where a VHDX is connected to a virtual machine on a computer that has a parent operating system.

VHDXs can be applied to PCs or devices that have no other installations of Windows, without a virtual machine or hypervisor. (A hypervisor is a layer of software under the operating system that runs virtual computers.) This enables greater flexibility in workload distribution because a single set of tools can be used to manage images for virtual machines and designated hardware.

If there's only one boot entry, the device immediately boots to Windows. If there's more than one boot entry, you'll see a boot menu where you can choose between the available versions of Windows on the device.

I know many people have posted a thread with this type of problem, however none of them seem to be exactly like mine. I have a Dell inspiron e1405. I bought it probably a year and a half ago. It has been working fine pretty much the whole time i have had it. The other day i was using it and everything was fine and i shut it down normally, and the next morning i go to turn it on and i get a black screen with the words "No bootable devices, strike f1 to retry boot, f2 for setup utility, press f5 to run onboard diagnostics" posted at the top of the screen. I ran the diagnostics and it said that i had no recognizable hard drive. I ran the vista setup disk and tried to repair and it wouldn't work. It said there were no disks to repair. I went to just install windows again hoping it would just fix what ever was wrong with my hard drive. when it went to install it said there were no disks to partition windows. I tried reseating the hard drive and that was no luck. Is it safe to assume my hard drive is fried, or is there anything else i could do to try and fix it?

It's always a bad sign when the diagnostics do not detect the drive at all. If you have important data that's not backed up, it would be worth your effort to purchase an external USB drive enclosure (for 2.5" drives) and see if a different computer can detect the drive.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like hardware failure. I have seen this at my work numerous times, where users simply turn on their workstations an are met with this type of error. The fact that the BIOS does not see the hard drives tells me that it is more than simply a Master Boot Record issue. My suggestion is to call DELL if the system is still under warranty and have them replace the hard drive. Or simply buy a new Hard Drive at retail and throw it into your system. Good luck.

I have removed the HD from the LAPTOP and put it on a DESKTOP... the HD was recognized, which means that the HD still works, but the PC was not able to BOOT with that HD, which made me wonder if the problem is really on the HD... can someone else give me a few more ideas on how to solve my problem?

would it be possible to install windows on the HD with the SERIAL that I got when I bought the LAPTOP but using my desktop to do it? (I know that the serial only works on the DELL LAPTOP and can't be used anywhere else)... I just won't do it on the laptop directly because the HD is not being detected there...

Based on what you said I would say the HDD may be fried but I would suggest a restart / reboot and watch your HDD indicator light if you have one. You can find that out by looking for a basic owners manual. If the light flickers on start then the HD is getting power and attempting to work.

The diag will normmaly give you at least a failure message. Somting like HDD failed just as it would if a portion of memory was bad. You may just have lost the driver associated with the HD. If the driver was lost or corrupted the system will not recognise the HD and naturally will not be able to boot the OS.

I am not sure about Vista but you may be able to access the boot menu by pressing F12 repeatedly , as soon as you turn on the system. Generaly it will be a black screen with a list of options. Get your drivers and utilities CD and put it in the CD drive, select the option in the list to boot from the CD and restart, then run a full diag from the CD. It will take about an hour.

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