Hi. I'm repairing an old Dell Inspiron 2200 notebook for a neighbor, and after installing Windows XP on it, I realized that Dell requires you to use a "Drivers and Utilities" disk to reinstall the hardware drivers. So now It's unable to detect the hard drive and the ROM seems to be non-functional. I've been able to download the proper drivers and I'm using an external CD/DVD drive that seems to work, but since it's not a factory disk that I burned the driver file to, it won't install unless I do it manually. How can I get a DOS command prompt on the screen so I can install the drivers manually. Thanks.

If it can't recognize the HDD, how on earth could you have "installed" XP? (and this would be better addressed in the XP forum anyway...)

I'm not quite sure if it was actually installed or not. If it isn't, then it certainly went through all the motions. When I turn on the unit it gives a message "No bootable devices found", but when I put in a copy of Windows XP it opens a one time boot menu, installs Windows, then tries to restart, but when it does I get the same "no bootable devices found". In diagnostics, all the hardware seems to pass, except for the hard drive. It asks for the Dell "drivers and utilities" disk, which I don't have. I downloaded the right drivers but I can't seem to get the screen to show a DOS prompt so I can open it up manually from the external CD/DVD drive. I just need to know how I can get to a DOS prompt.

Have you checked the BIOS to see which drive is considered first-bootable? It may be looking only for the CD/DVD with no HDD entry (never worked with many Dell Laptops, so that may or may not be the case)...

Okay, I just checked the BIOS. If the hardware boots in the order that devices show up in the device info list in BIOS, then the hard drive is first on that list. I'm just about positive that I can install these drivers manually, if I can just get a DOS command prompt to show up on the screen. My question is, 'how can I get a DOS command prompt'.

hallo , I had similar problems with my old inspiron 2200 (no bootable device found). Finally I got a DOS prompt by using my old Win98 cd. With this prompt I found out that my HDD was not readable. After disassembing and re-assembling all hardware it worked again. I think it was due to a bad contact on the mainboard. Lieven - Belgium