Solved Dell 660s can't see optical drive after HD replaced

My hard drive crashed and I am attempting to replace it with an identical drive. I put the recovery cd's in the optical drive and I get 'no boot device available' I attached another dvd with a usb cable and it still can't find it. If I take the disk and the drive and attach it to my laptop it boots (so drive and disk is good.) I suspect something in memory? If I let it attempt to boot a few times it eventually takes me to the 'your PC needs to be repaired' The Boot Configuration Data is missing file \EFI\Microsoft\Boot|BCD Error Code 0xc0000185. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!!

When you try to boot the optical drive, are you pressing F12 at power on which gives you the boot menu, so you can select the CD/DVD drive?

If its not detected with F12, double check the cabling for the optical drive. A connector may have been inadvertently disconnected while replacing the hard drive.

fireberd said:

When you try to boot the optical drive, are you pressing F12 at power on which gives you the boot menu, so you can select the CD/DVD drive?

If its not detected with F12, double check the cabling for the optical drive. A connector may have been inadvertently disconnected while replacing the hard drive.

Click to expand...

Yes, I have played with the boot order F12. I also double checked for loose cable connections.

Try resetting the BIOS. With the PC powered off, open the case and remove the CR2032 CMOS backup battery for at least 10 minutes.
Reinstall the battery, observing polarity. Power on the PC and see if this helps.

If not, suggest you post on the Dell Community support forums.
Desktop - Dell Community

Is it a SATA or a PATA (IDE) drive?

It is a SATA drive.

Ok, thanks. Try fireberd's suggestion to power reset the BIOS.
WHen you power up aft6er putting the battery back in, go into BIOS Setup and load defaults and set the date and time.

I reset the CMOS (removed battery), reset date/time and got the same results. Odd, If I use the internal OD (Sata2), set to boot of OD, lights come on and it spins but reports 'no boot drive.' If I use the USB with a 2nd dvd drive, set boot order to USB, dvd spins but reports no boot drive. I'm stumped. Thank you both for your input.

Is it set for UEFI mode? Did you turn Secure Boot off? I think you have to if you want to boot a CD/DVD.

You could try downloading the latest Windows 8.1 ISO that matches what you had then create a flash drive to install from, see if that work.

Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 ISO - Download or Create

Create the ISO then use Rufus to create the flash drive from the ISO. Create a UEFI/GPT style flash drive.
Boot it and see if you can install.

Ztruker said:

Is it set for UEFI mode? Did you turn Secure Boot off? I think you have to if you want to boot a CD/DVD.

You could try downloading the latest Windows 8.1 ISO that matches what you had then create a flash drive to install from, see if that work.

Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 ISO - Download or Create

Create the ISO then use Rufus to create the flash drive from the ISO. Create a UEFI/GPT style flash drive.
Boot it and see if you can install.

Click to expand...

Dell embeds the product key on the mother board so I don't have it. I think I'm stuck using their recovery CD or buying the OS again.

Not true. The Windows 8.1 installer will read the key from BIOS and it will activate.
This is true only if you download the right version of Windows 8.1 of coourse.



If you get the right one, you will not be asked for a key during install. It will use the one in BIOS.

Ztruker said:

Is it set for UEFI mode? Did you turn Secure Boot off? I think you have to if you want to boot a CD/DVD.

You could try downloading the latest Windows 8.1 ISO that matches what you had then create a flash drive to install from, see if that work.

Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 ISO - Download or Create

Create the ISO then use Rufus to create the flash drive from the ISO. Create a UEFI/GPT style flash drive.
Boot it and see if you can install.

Click to expand...

Thanks! ISO and Rufus solved it Kudos!

Glad to hear it. Hope you like Win 10, I know I do.