I am a noob when it comes to computers so please help me.

I have a XP (on a dell latitude C810) that I decided to format. So I put in the CD and went through the instructions and it didn't work.
I decided to retry formatting. When it was only ~10% done, my brother unplugged the POWER cord and the laptop shut off. (My laptops battery it broken - when you unplug the AC power it turns off). I restarted the laptop and it loaded the dell image, then went to a screen that read:

"Primary hard disk drive not found
Fixed optical drive not found
No bootable devices -- strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility"

I hit F1 and it says "No bootable devices -- strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility"

PLEASE HELP ME



First off do you have the original recovery disc that came with the computer?

Second, the hard drive is not formated anymore and so is not being recognized. This shouldn't matter since you still need to boot from the recovery dics and continue what you started.

You may have tried this but you say you are noob so I would try this first.

Put your recovery disk in your default cd-rom then start your computer.

Right from the start it loads the bios. Look for an option to set the boot order or select that the computer boots from the cd-rom. Usualy F2 will get you into the bios options. Some bios' automaticaly give you choices what to boot from everytime you boot up.

If you cannot boot from the cd-rom for some reason then you may have to go another rout but it seems this is where your PROBLEM is. You need to boot from cd-rom and reinstall windows. The errors are from trying to boot the hard drive which is not usable in its current state.Find the documentation for the poor Dell. I am very familiar with Dell computers and the error messages you gave are typical, but indicate that you have not read the documentation. You can contact Dell and they will give you the details of how to set up the system. The Dell has more than just one BIOS version. So it matters which Laptop or PC you have. On the Dell site they will ASK you for the serial number and service number. If the Dell is not working and you are on another PC,  they can not read it automatically. You have it enter the mumblers of the sick machine into the search box.
Also, do not try to use a generic XP with any Dell made in the past few years.Even when you have the product key. Quote from: Geek-9pm on April 06, 2009, 08:40:26 PM

Also, do not try to use a generic XP with any Dell made in the past few years.Even when you have the product key.

Why not? worked for me several times ...

This has worked for me: In BIOS setup; make sure your numbers lock, scroll lock, and caps lock are all ON. Press alt+e then alt+f and finally alt+b and hold it down till reboot. This will run the IDE config and reset the right boot order and find the missing primary disks.