No boot device available

My girlfriend's desktop computer has broken down and gives me the message "No boot device available". Before that screen it shows me something about RAID volumes which I don't fully understand. It's a Dell Dimension something, at least 5 years old. I tried resetting defaults in BIOS because I read somewhere that CMOS battery runs out of juice it could cause this sudden behavior.

I opened the chassi and there are 2 HDD's. When I go into BIOS it says that the drive located at SATA-2 is not detected. Could it have something to do with the 2 drives running in RAID that when one drive goes "offline" the other is dependent on the not-functional drive?

And one Windows-related question. This PC had Windows 7 installed on it when bought. My girlfriend upgraded to Windows 10 for free. If I would need to do a clean install of Windows 10 on the non-botched drive, how would I go about that? I may have some image from MSDNAA, but can I use her old Windows 7 key, knowing she did upgrade in the free year?

Thank you.

Regards,
Viktor

Hi there

Chances are that you need to load the RAID driver before Windows boots in order to see the HDD otherwise you'll get the message "No boot device" or some message like that.

I believe at Windows re-install time you CAN load the RAID driver - somewhere in the install there is a process to install driver from external source.

My system allowed me to integrate the RAID driver before starting the install (HP Gen 8 proliant microserver -- used the driver from W2012 server was on the HP server on an internal chip -- works fine for W10 too).

You'll need to google a bit more on this so -- getting RAID drivers integrated into W10 install isn't always easy.

Sorry I can't be a bit more helpful here.

Cheers
jimbo

Can you just turn RAID off in UEFI/BIOS, set the SATA controllers to AHCI and use the drives as individuals?

Hi,

When I go into BIOS it says that the drive located at SATA-2 is not detected.

That's the root of the problem. Check the SATA cable connections, swap the drive connection around to see if the problematic drive moves with it etc.

Cheers,