[grimsdale]

Hi,Yes im a newbie but have a weird problem with my mini 9, i have read all the posts i could and still cannot find a solution,please help.
The story is the mini 9 was working perfectly then i got the dreaded "no operating system found".No problem i thought it was only a 8gb s-tec ssd and i wanted to upgrade it anyway.
I purchased 2 kingspec 32gb ssd's both brand new and i have a spare working 8gb s-tec also.
I have bios A07.My external cd-drive is plugged into the usb port nearest the power supply,the cd drive has its own power supply.When i boot the original dell cd that came with it i get "windows cannot be installed to this disk.The computers hardware may not support booting to this disk,Ensure that the disks controller is enabled in the computers bios menu".
Now i have read up on this about turning the card reader off,still the same .
All 3 ssds show up fine in the bios with the correct storage amount,i have now also repaired the faulty ssd with much ease thanks to a guide on this site.
I have tried everything i can,windows xp-win 7-win-8 all do the same windows cannot install blah blah blah.I have formatted the disks using diskpart all ok.
I have also tried to install via usb flash drive but still the same,i have also purchased a brand new 2gb memory card still no joy,the drives are seated ok also.
Im just pulling my hair out,i know its something really silly om not doing but HELP...
Ive even tried to install snow leapard etc with the boot disks(on cd and usb) but no joy.
The mini was working perfectly until this happened,its in really good condition and the battery holds charge for along time.
Please any help would be most gratefull.
Thank you

[lswartz]

That is interesting. Is there any chance that your RAM got nudged? Maybe run something like memtest & validate your RAM. I recently had a similar problem on my wife's desktop which was fixed after swapping RAM. You might also try a flash drive of Ubuntu & see if it will run OK from the flash drive.

[grimsdale]

Hi,1st of all thank you for a quick reply.
yep forgot to mention ive tried the latest version of ubuntu from a usb flash drive,not installed just run off usb and it works well.

Also have just tried memtest from memtest86+ all seems ok on the 1gb stick and 2gb stick

---------- Post added at 04:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:20 PM ----------

I got the bios number wrong its "A05". Also in the bios i have the following settings:-
boot time dia screen "enabled"
quickboot "enabled"
intel speedstep "enabled"
no-execute mem protection "enabled"
onboard lan control "disabled"
wlan "disabled"
bluetooth "disabled"
usb bios legacy support "enabled"
usb wake support "disabled"
cardslots "disabled"

[lswartz]

It seems to me like you have done everything correct. Just to be sure, your are getting it to boot from your external CD drive, it just is not seeing the SSD to install even though it is showing in BIOS. When you booted up in Ubuntu were you able to see the SSD OK? I would probably try installing Ubuntu just to see if I could install an OS.

[grimsdale]

Yep am booting from external cd (tried usb stick also).The ssd is showing up during the process but wont let me install to it, i can format it all ok.
Last night i ran the live ubuntu fine,the disk shows up in it,when i went to install it let me go through all the filling in username etc,whilt it was copying files and then came up with an error message,i tried this with all 3 ssds

[lswartz]

This is discouraging. You have eliminated the RAM & SSD as possible problems, while the Mini 9 works fine booting from a flash drive. That leaves the MB . You have tried everything that I would do.

Maybe Steve will log on with a better idea. He is smarter at this than I am.

[holmes4]

Don't know about "smarter", lswartz...

I see that you did not try to install Ubuntu to the SSD. You should try that as an experiment.

The Dell Windows CD you have - is this a "restore" CD or an "install" CD? If an "install" CD (normal Windows boot appearance), did you do a "custom" install and delete any existing partitions?

[grimsdale]

when i goto install from usb or dvd ubuntu(12.10) it shows the ssd (have tried all 3 now) preparing to install all ok,who are you all ok,copying files crashes 3/4 way saying "the installer encountered an error copying files to hard disk erno5 input/output due to faulty cd/dvd drive" but it says this on all 3 ssds and via usb install or dvd install.
I have the original restore dell cd and original install cd & original windows xp pro/original windows 7....i have deleted partitions and created them on all 3 drives,tried in ntfs & fat32....
This is very weird as it was perfectly all ok one day.
The dell lets me do everthing in ubuntu live & if i create a dos usb bootable disk.

[lswartz]

OK, this does sounds exactly like my RAM issue. Have your tried installing any OS with the 1 GB dimm? I assume that you have been using the 2 GB dimm. I also understand that you have tested both dimm's as well.

---------- Post added at 06:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:39 PM ----------

Originally Posted by holmes4

Don't know about "smarter", lswartz...

Well then, maybe just lots of good ideas .

[grimsdale]

I have tried everything with the 1gb stick (stock)and the 2gb stick(brand new) with all 3 ssd's still no joy.