No boot device found

[shabby]

We got around a dozen dell 7440 aio pc's for work, we decided to test out the recovery cd that came with it. After we restore win 10 using the recovery cd we get a no boot device found error upon bootup, we tried a non dell win10 iso from microsoft and it installs fine no errors at all, but when we use the dell recovery cd the error pops up again.

Dell support is as clueless as can be, first they suggested to go to microsofts recovery cd site and look for a solution there... really?!? Then they said to do a clean os install and see if that fixes it... oh come on. Last resort is for them to send a technician to fix the issue, but i don't see how since something seems to be wrong with their recovery cd.

When we booted up with the recovery cd and went to command prompt everything looked fine on c: drive, we tried a whole bunch of bootsect.exe /nt60 and /mbr fixes and what not but none worked. Any idea on what to do here?

 

[JasonCoder]

Is there a problem just rolling with the iso from microsoft?

 

[Ketchup]

I would think that making an image with all recent updates and all common software would be the best thing to use for this sort of thing anyway.

 

[shabby]

Is there a problem just rolling with the iso from microsoft?

There's a lot of paid software on the recovery image, so installing all that software and all of the drivers manually(there like 20+ from dell) with the microsoft iso is kinda outta the question, i mean its doable but its just easier if the recovery cd worked from the start.

I would think that making an image with all recent updates and all common software would be the best thing to use for this sort of thing anyway.

That's definitely the other option, only one pc is screwed up now.

 

[JasonCoder]

There's a lot of paid software on the recovery image, so installing all that software and all of the drivers manually(there like 20+ from dell) with the microsoft iso is kinda outta the question, i mean its doable but its just easier if the recovery cd worked from the start.

Yeah, I'd suggest fiddling with one and get it just right and snap an image from it for the rest.

Probably be ahead vs. waiting on Dell to wire their head and ass together.

 

[TheELF]

When we booted up with the recovery cd and went to command prompt everything looked fine on c: drive, we tried a whole bunch of bootsect.exe /nt60 and /mbr fixes and what not but none worked. Any idea on what to do here?

Your bootsector is fine, the machine does boot up,it just can't find your uefi partition that contains the actual boot info,did you completely delete all partitions before trying the recovery?
Dell's recovery is probably meant only to restore the C partition but not the whole drive.
Use command prompt to make a small partition at the beginning of the drive and create a proper bcd store on it then use dell's recovery on the remaining drive.

 

[shabby]

Your bootsector is fine, the machine does boot up,it just can't find your uefi partition that contains the actual boot info,did you completely delete all partitions before trying the recovery?

I believe all the partitions were deleted, we'll be getting some ssd's for the pc's so wanted to see how the recovery cd would work on a blank drive.
I'll try creating the partitions next week when i get back to work, thanks.

 

[Ketchup]

Definitely something you can't work around, but it would annoy me to know that the manufacturer can't make working recovery media for the device.

I have to ask though - did you do anything crazy like wipe the partitions manually or change BIOS settings before running the recover program?

 

[TheELF]

That's how things work now,recovery is only done for windows and your're not supposed to mess with the boot partition.
Booting with a windows dvd/usb and running startup repair (a few times) would fix this issue as well.

If someone doesn't like that there is always the cloning path,since you will get ssds visit their websites and look for it,almost all of them have a free version available,usually called migration software,specially made for what you want to do,migrate from hdd to sdd.

 

[holden j caufield]

why is uefi so popular?

 

[TheELF]

Right?Like there was anything wrong with using a floppy as a boot disk to initialize your hdd.
(Now get of my lawn you crazy kids)
Times just move on and everything gets more complicated,because everything gets more features to be able to cope with the preset,mbr for example only allowed for 4 primary bootable partitions which looks pretty lame for 2016.

 

[shabby]

I have to ask though - did you do anything crazy like wipe the partitions manually or change BIOS settings before running the recover program?

Yes they were wiped, if a hd crashes we'd like to use the recovery cd to restore windows, that's how it should work right?

Booting with a windows dvd/usb and running startup repair (a few times) would fix this issue as well.

Few times... funny you mention that, because startup repair did work once, but never again.

 

[Ketchup]

Yes they were wiped, if a hd crashes we'd like to use the recovery cd to restore windows, that's how it should work right?

That's what I would hope for, but I am not Dell. One thing you could try is to actually download a new recovery image and see if that works better:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/OSISO

If you call them again, I would suggest preparing some specific questions to ask them, if you haven't already. Such as "will this recovery media work if I replace the drive?"

 

[corkyg]

why is uefi so popular?

This should help you on that: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2210223

Perhaps the most common reason today is to access drives > 2TB.

 

[MongGrel]

NM, it really wasn't going to advance the thread much.

 

[shabby]

That's what I would hope for, but I am not Dell. One thing you could try is to actually download a new recovery image and see if that works better:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/OSISO

If you call them again, I would suggest preparing some specific questions to ask them, if you haven't already. Such as "will this recovery media work if I replace the drive?"

We tried one of those images, same issue.
You're assuming dell will know the answers to our questions, if you read the 2nd paragraph in my first post you'll see they don't even know what were talking aboot.

 

[Ketchup]

We tried one of those images, same issue.
You're assuming dell will know the answers to our questions, if you read the 2nd paragraph in my first post you'll see they don't even know what were talking aboot.

They do, you're just not getting to the right level. There are some very intelligent people there, not that you or I could necessarily get to them. Do you have a contract with them? That is one good way to get to it.

Not that you need one. If the solution in post #3 works for you, I would still be content with that, I am just a bit surprised that their recovery solution doesn't work, as I have generally had the best luck with their recovery process compared to the other OEMs.

 

[bruceb]

On another of the Dells that is still ok, go into disk management and see how the drive is partitioned. Your drive that you are attempting to install on may be set wrong. Boot sector has to be first. Also you might try reflashing the BIOS and then run the recovery cd, That would set the BIOS back to defaults. You should have the Boot Order set to CD Drive, then Hard Drive.
If you do not, then you can not boot from the cd / dvd when you need to.

 

[shabby]

So dell finally sent a third party tech to "fix" the problem, he was instructed by dell to replace the mobo and hard drive... which obviously did nothing. As soon as we popped the recovery cd in the same issue was there, he said the recovery cd that dell provides will work on any pc and isn't specific to dell, its a basic win 10 image that for some reason doesn't work.

 

[Ketchup]

So dell finally sent a third party tech to "fix" the problem, he was instructed by dell to replace the mobo and hard drive... which obviously did nothing. As soon as we popped the recovery cd in the same issue was there, he said the recovery cd that dell provides will work on any pc and isn't specific to dell, its a basic win 10 image that for some reason doesn't work.

Thanks for the update. I don't know about you, but I would have a hard time not being disappointed if I were in a situation like this. How much time and labor would they have saved if they just sent you replacement recovery media (which I think we all suspected)? Oh, because it's not in their script of what to do!

 

[daveybrat]

Sometimes all you have to do is to turn off Secure Boot in the bios. I've seen that problem before and as soon as you turn off Secure Boot it fires right up. Just leave UEFI on and Legacy support off.

 

[shabby]

Thanks for the update. I don't know about you, but I would have a hard time not being disappointed if I were in a situation like this. How much time and labor would they have saved if they just sent you replacement recovery media (which I think we all suspected)? Oh, because it's not in their script of what to do!

Ya it seems anyone can work in support nowadays without any knowledge of anything, as long as they can match your issue to one in their list of issues they're certified a++++ techs.

Sometimes all you have to do is to turn off Secure Boot in the bios. I've seen that problem before and as soon as you turn off Secure Boot it fires right up. Just leave UEFI on and Legacy support off.

Tried turning off secure boot but it didn't help.

 

[shabby]

So dell told us to use their recovery and restore program, at first it seemed like it was working, it "fixed" a bunch of partition table and boot records issues, of course when i rebooted it didn't fix anything. Ran the program again so it would reinstall windows but the menu system was illegible for some reason so you couldn't choose anything, son of a...

Started playing with the bios, after some time i reset it to factory defaults with uefi enabled and it boots OMG!!! Win 10 finished installing and everything is working fine.
So we reinstalled dell's win10 again and again the boot device was not found, went back into the bios and set it to legacy, doesn't boot, set it to legacy and reset factory defaults, doesn't boot. Set it to uefi, doesn't boot, set it to uefi and reset to factory default and its boots and it finishes installing windows...

What does uefi and a factory reset of the bios have to do with dells recovery cd? We didn't have to do this when installing a stock win10 image, only with dells image we had to do this.

 

[Ketchup]

Ah, so it's changing something in the BIOS while it is installing Windows. And of course, it's a Dell, so it's probably a setting the end user doesn't even have access to with such limited access to options/settings. Ain't UEFI great?

 

[shabby]

Would putting a password on the bios prevent os installs from writing to it?
I think i should punish dell by pretending this problem still isn't fixed, i can't believe how much time i wasted on something so stupid.