“no bootable device found”

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This unpleasant message greeted me on grub screen today when attempting to boot computer.  Dell Optiplex 5060 running Mint Mate 20.3.  Plenty of conflicting info out there- any forum members have the answer?

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SP, restore form an Image backup. You do have an Image backup don’t you?
You’ll probably only need to restore the boot partition, but may have to do the whole thing. Not familiar with the Linux partition scheme.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Slowpoke47

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I assume you’ve tried to boot it more than once and got the same message each time?

Open the case and check all the electrical connections, especially the hard drive and power supply; something could be loose.

Have you been poking around the BIOS? Perhaps messing with the boot order or setting the boot to usb with no alternative boot source if there is no bootable usb?

Try booting from a usb stick that has Mint on it. If it boots from that then there’s an issue with the HDD/SSD.

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Slowpoke47

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Had to fire up our old creaky HP laptop to look for help- here included.  Typical conflicting advice, but Dell support addresses this problem specifically and they say reinstall the OS.  Since I was ready to update to Mate 22 anyway, stick already used once on another machine, that’s all going on right now- the usual long list of updates just finished.  Went with dual boot alongside existing Mate 20.3 in case I need to get into it- I assume I can because 22 has now restarted from installing updates, bootloader is the same for both.

No idea what happened- shut down yesterday, no drama, today got the error message.  My plan was to do a final backup on the old system, then replace it with 22.  By coincidence, my go-to backup app, Veeam, was also a problem yesterday, planned to fix it today.  Fortunately, yesterday put all files and bookmarks from the old OS on a stick.  I’ll see if the new OS will accept them.

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DrBonzo

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Good that it booted from a usb stick, but I would keep an eye on the hard drive and make frequent backups. Once you get 20.3 and 22 up and running, see if you can pull up the Disks app/program. In 20.3 Cinnamon it’s under Accessories and by clicking on the 3 vertical dots in the upper right, choose Smart Data and Self-Tests… and see what the condition of the hard drive is. Don’t worry if you see a bunch of Pre-Fail and Old Age statements (my daily driver has said that ever since I first installed Mint on it back in 2020), but hopefully you’ll see something like “Disk is OK”.

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Slowpoke47

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Mate 20.3 opened, took a lo-o-ong time.  Recovery from this mess looks like a major project, HDD now has 4 greatly unequal partitions, no input from me on that.  Not sure how to get the saved files imported into 22- they show on the stick, though.  Bookmarks (several hundred) in an HTML list, need to transfer them to the b/m toolbar- original format many folders and sub-folders.  Need to add the same additional apps to 22 that are in 20.3.

Tomorrow I’ll run Backup Tool and save to an ext. drive and see what that looks like.  Eventually hope to get Veeam reinstalled.  At lest I know I can get into both systems.

 

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Open the usb stick and drag and drop the files and folders where you want them on 22 (drag them to the desktop or documents folder or wherever). For bookmarks go to Bookmarks —> Manage Bookmarks –> Import and Backup and you’ll see an option to import from HTML.

FWIW – in my experience the first couple of boots after installing a new version are usually relatively slow, whether its booting the new version or the previous version (if you’ve opted for dual boot).

My daily driver has a 500 GB HDD and dual boots 20.3 and Windows 7. It’s got 6 partitions ranging from 41 MB to 290 GB. Three partitions are for Windows 7 and three for 20.3, although partitions 5 and 6 appear to be lumped together to form partition 4. I always have let the installation process take care of the partioning and it’s sizing with no input from me.

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Slowpoke47

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DrBonzo wrote:

Open the usb stick and drag and drop the files and folders where you want them on 22 (drag them to the desktop or documents folder or wherever).

That’s what I expected to do, but I can’t have the stick and the directories open at the same time.  The stick contents are in /media.

DrBonzo wrote:

Manage Bookmarks –> Import and Backup and you’ll see an option to import from HTML.

Yes, they are imported, in HTML format, as a list.  I need to park them in the bookmarks toolbar, in order- they actually overflow in that right-side column.

As for the partitions, as long as the new OS has enough room, I’m not concerned.  That could be a non-issue or at least low priority.  Back at this tomorrow.  Thanks for your assistance.

A footnote- I’ve had an ongoing sporadic issue with this site’s unchecking the “notify” box, so I don’t have a timely alert of anyone’s responses.  Not just on this computer, on both laptops also.  Been exchanging emails with Susan B. but so far, no aha moment.

 

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Plug the usb stick in and open it (double click or right click and then select Open). In Cinnamon I have a Home folder on the desktop. When I then open it (double or right click) it looks like it’s the only window open, but there are actually 2 windows open – the 2 windows are exactly superimposed on each other. Move the cursor to the top of the Home window, hold the left mouse (or touchpad) down and drag the top (i.e., Home) window somewhere so you can see all or at least parts of each window. Then you can drag and drop.

Or, open the Files icon (lower left in Cinnamon) or the Home icon, then open the usb stick. Both windows overlap exactly, appearing as only one open window, but you can drag the top window (in this case the usb stick window) so you can see both windows. Then drag and drop.

The above is what happens on my 20.3 Cinnamon. I’m not sure what Mate looks like but my guess is you can do something similar to the above.

Regarding partition sizes, in my experience the second OS to be installed invariably has a smaller partition. On my daily driver, Windows 7 has a partition size of 290GB, and the 20.3 partition is 200 GB. My other dual boot machines have partitions roughly in the same proportion.

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Slowpoke47

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Back at this today, but time limited.  First order of business, compare all BIOS settings with our Dell laptop.  After this problem arose, had advice (some from within the BIOS) to change a couple of settings.  The laptop runs without drama, only difference in settings should concern the battery.

Next, a backup to external medium using Backup Tool.  Always used 3rd party b/u (Veeam, temporarily not available), but since both OS are now available, that’s my next move.  If that’s unsatisfactory, on to drag-and-drop as per DrBonzo.

If all goes well, on to installation of 3rd party apps in the new OS.  All told, might be a couple of days before I can get this done.

 

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DrBonzo

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@Slowpoke47, something to consider later once fixed..
With EoS for Linuxmint MATE 20.x being April 2025,
I’d look at this as an opportunity to perhaps move to Linuxmint MATE 22 sooner after new backups have been made.
Help is at hand via https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4732

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Slowpoke47

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My original intent was to do just that, but when I ran into trouble with the install and backup, I decided it was prudent to allow the dual boot so as not to lose any data.  When I get 22 all 100% I’ll want to remove 20.3.  Currently working on all that as time allows.

 

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Microfix

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Perhaps try addressing the problem from within windows 7, that is, if you can boot the Windows 7 OS. EasyBCD bootloader may help, as I supect something has gone in the bootloader.

I’m not up on dual booting as I took a concious decision many years ago to run isolated operating systems per device.

Download available WITHOUT registration to try over on:
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/easybcd.html

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Slowpoke47

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Thanks- the dual boot is Mate 20.3 and 22- temporary, I hope.  We ran a Dell Inspiron desktop a few years back (still have it, stashed in a closet) and it had the old style HDD’s, that was originally Vista, then W7 but I installed a second drive which was our intro to Mint.  The case was set up with a 2nd slot and pigtail- even I could do it.  No problem keeping the two separated.  Since we abandoned Windows anyway, I, as you, prefer single boot.

 

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This link gives all possible upgrade paths for Mint versions 17 through 21.3:

https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/upgrade.html

20.3 must first upgrade to 21 (major upgrade). 21 must then upgrade to 21.3 (minor upgrade). 21.3 can then upgrade to 22 (major upgrade). No other upgrade paths are possible according to the link.

If it was me – and it will be me within the next couple months – I’d skip the upgrades and just install 22 wiping out my 20.3 in the process. Of course I’ll have all my files backed up and ready for eaasy loading into 22, and I don’t have many apps/programs to reinstall and set up (part of my minimalist approach to computing), so for me the decision is easy, particularly since I’ll use the occasion to also swap out HDDs for SSDs.

But of course your situation may be enough different that you would prefer 2 major upgrades to transferring your files and setting up your apps/programs.

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Slowpoke47

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DrBonzo wrote:

I’d skip the upgrades and just install 22 wiping out my 20.3 in the process.

This was my original intent.  Went off the rails with that “no bootable disk found” message.  I now plan to start over with a new 22 install that wipes everything else, but first order of business is to be SURE I have a saved copy of all bookmarks, files, and perhaps via the Backup Tool function, installed apps as well.  Will do both manual copies and with Veeam once that app is fully deployed again.

PS- I see this response is posted ahead of yesterday’s.  My error.  Please view them in reverse order.

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DrBonzo

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Slowpoke47 wrote:

First order of business, compare all BIOS settings with our Dell laptop. After this problem arose, had advice (some from within the BIOS) to change a couple of settings. The laptop runs without drama, only difference in settings should concern the battery.

Just did this, there were a couple of settings common to both machines that didn’t match but looked like they should, so I changed this pc to match the laptop.

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Looks like everything is now straightened out.  Thanks to all who posted.

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DrBonzo

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