No boot sector on hard disk

[darkoray]

first of all i would like to say hello as this is my first post.

Ok now to my problem. i was given a dell latitude D600 laptop from a friend the only catch is that the hard drive wasent working.

i went out a brought a western digital 80gb hard drive and intalled that. i checked the bios and the board now reads a drive as been there but when i put in my windows XP boot disk i get an error that says

No boot sector on hard disk
No bootable devices strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility

i have looked around for a solution but most i find use windows to fix and since i cant get windows on there i have a problem.

one thing i would like to know is wether or not i need to intall somthing for the new drive to create a boot sector? ( if thats even possible)

or if the mother board needs somthing to run it?

i would be greatful for any help i can get.

 

[filimarcus]

hi,
press f2 for setup utility..under setup(cmos setup) find boot order..put your hard drive in the first boot...save and exit changes...you can test it if will work...

cont...
if nothing happens...repeat your installation using windows xp cd, once you got into the windows setup just follow the screen..since your hardrive is new you can format your drive using NTFS file system quick installation.

cont..
or else check the jumper first located on the drive itself...it should be set to master

 

[darkoray]

thanks for the quick reply.

i have moved the drive to the top of the boot list but i still get the same problem. i have tried to boot from disk but again i get the same error. as for the jumper im not to sure what im looking for on that.

could it be the wiindows im trying to use?

 

[kimsland]

Hi I might be able to help you.

The System Bios must be set to:
1. CDRom as first bootable drive
2. HardDrive
3. Doesn't matter

Please go to Bios Setup screen, usually by pressing DEL or F2 or whichever key it states on system startup, and change the boot order to the above.
Then Save and Exit (which is F10 key)

Then put the original bootable Windows Setup CD in the CD Drive
Restart
And, allow the Windows CD to start the computer
Follow the prompts from there

Note: for a new HardDrive there is no partitioning or formatting to do :/ (this is all automatically done)

 

[darkoray]

i changed the boot order to that but still no luck.

is there another way i could install windows. using my PC maybe?

 

[kimsland]

Please "chat" with Dell here: https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic100658.html
A new HardDrive
With CD as first boot option
Should start the CD
And install Windows

Unless Faulty computer HardDrive or Windows CD