OptiPlex 3060, 5060, and 7060 Tower Systems: Cannot Boot to the Operating System when Hard Drive Protection has Been Enabled

This article contains information about OptiPlex (3060, 5060, and 7060) tower systems not booting when Hard Drive Protection is enabled.

No Boot with Hard Drive Protection Enabled

The OptiPlex (3060, 5060, and 7060) tower system may not boot to the Operating System (OS) and show a "No Bootable Devices Found" error. This happens when Hard Drive (HDD) Protection has been enabled (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Solution

BIOS version 1.2.17 or newer will resolve this issue and can be downloaded from the Dell Support Site.

Note: The recommended solution is to update to the newest version of the BIOS, but the following workarounds can be used.

There are two workarounds below that can be used as well:

1. Downgrade the BIOS to version 1.1.4 through the F12 boot menu:
   1. Download and copy the BIOS execution file (OptiPlex_x060_1.1.4.exe) to a USB key.
   2. Attach the USB key to system, power the system on and press the F12 key to enter the Boot Menu.
   3. Select "OTHER OPTIONS" -> "BIOS Flash Update" (Figure 2).
      
      Figure 2
       
   4. Select the file path of BIOS v1.1.4 (Figure 3).
      
      Figure 3
       
   5. Select BIOS v1.1.4 to downgrade BIOS (Figure 4).
      
      Figure 4
       
   6. Press "Begin Flash Update" button to flash BIOS (Figure 5).
      
      Figure 5
       
   7. Press the "Yes" button to start the BIOS flashing process (Figure 6).
      
      Figure 6
       
   8. The System will reboot and start to flash the BIOS (Figure 7).
      
      Figure 7
       

If you have further questions about this article, contact Dell Technical Support.

• Downgrade the BIOS to version 1.1.4 through the Windows environment:
  1. Power the system on and press the F2 key to enter the Setup Menu.
  2. Select "Security" -> "HDD Protection Support" page and uncheck the "HDD Protection Support" option. Click apply and exit (Figure 8).
     
     Figure 8
      
  3. Boot into Windows and download BIOS version 1.1.4 from the Dell Support Site (Figure 9).
     
     Figure 9
      
  4. Double-click the OptiPlex_x060_1.1.4.exe to downgrade the BIOS.
  5. After flashing the BIOS, enter the F2 Setup Menu to reenable "HDD Protection Support" (Figure 10).
     
     Figure 10