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I’ve got this Dell XPS 15z laptop laying around with a broken hard driving. I swapped the hard disk drive (same format) of another laptop for an SSD. So I thought I could try to make it work again by replacing the broken hard disk drive with this other hard disk drive which is still working.

Dell Laptop is working, I actually had it working with another hard disk drive on Ubuntu and Pear Linux.

But I need it on Windows 8 for a demo.

My spare hard disk drive, has already Windows 8 installed and if I were to put it back into my other laptop—a Vaio—it would boot and work properly.

But when I put that Windows 8 hard disk drive in my Dell XPS 15z I get the message

Operating System Not Found

I decided then I would try to reinstall Windows 8 with a USB bootable device as explained here.

But when I boot from the USB device I get the error message again:

Operating System Not Found.

I really don’t understand why this is not working.

PS: In the BIOS, I see the hard disk drive with it’s name and everything, so the BIOS is detecting it properly.

I tried to have a windows bootable usb, (OS running on key) when I boot in my usb flash drive, i have the same message again

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Make sure that the Dell XPS 15z is not in UEFI mode. If it is, switch it back to BIOS compatibility mode so your HDD with MBR will work.

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  • I do not have any option related to this when I enter BIOS.
    – Fawar
    Commented Mar 5, 2015 at 15:48
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In BIOS, I would also change ACPI power options (on /off) and [if any] HDD disk LBA access mode (DOS, other OS)

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  • I do not have this option in my BIOS :(
    – Fawar
    Commented Mar 5, 2015 at 15:49
  • What about an option that tells SATA controller to emulate IDE or it may just have a compatible mode option under SATA settings. Your new HDD was SATA?
    – F.I.V
    Commented Mar 6, 2015 at 11:09
  • And another suggestion about overmind's answer: Doesn't legacy (vs UEFI) options appear in boot-popup menu. The menu that appear during BIOS execution by pressing F8 or similar keys to select boot device on the fly without entering BIOS setup?
    – F.I.V
    Commented Mar 6, 2015 at 11:17

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