[nonPCwiz]

UPDATED

Hi, everyone,

I am new to this forum and wanted to post my problem in hopes that I might find a solution if there is one.

I bought an HP laptop and discovered sometime later that the hard drive or the OS was bad.

This is the error message:

BOOT DEVICE NOT FOUND.

PLEASE INSTALL AN OPERATING SYSTEM ON YOUR HARD DRIVE DISK.

I've never used it other than to turn it on and look around. I made a terrible mistake by not checking out what I'd bought when it arrived. And it is no longer under warranty.

How can a brand new laptop have a bad hard drive or OS?

Could it have been damaged during shipment? I don't know, I'm just pondering the possibilities.

The main thing I think the HDD is bad, corrupt....whatever.

Is there anyway to fix it?

Or, do I need to purchase a new one?

I will appreciate any advice or other help.

Thank you.

Edited by nonPCwiz, 20 July 2013 - 07:33 PM.

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If it's brand new, why is it not still under warranty? That doesn't sound right to me at all.

[Ztruker]

If it's brand new, why is it not still under warranty? That doesn't sound right to me at all.

[nonPCwiz]

I did not mean to confuse anyone reading my post.

Brand new for me means I don't use something on a daily basis.

This was a backup laptop I purchased.

I have done a system restore.

The hard drive still does not boot up normally.

Yet, if I go into BIOS I can boot up from that point.

I don't know if I am explaining this in proper terms. My apologies.

[phillpower2]

Hello nonPCwiz

If I may interject while Ztruker is offline

Can I ask how long you have owned the notebook and if you can tell us from where it was purchased, better still if you can provide a link to the merchant.

I have done a system restore.

Can you tell us the steps that were used to do the "system restore"

The hard drive still does not boot up normally.

Yet, if I go into BIOS I can boot up from that point.

Please explain how you are able to boot up normally from the BIOS.

Can you also tell us how the boot sequence is set in the BIOS as in is the first device HDD, second device DVD drive etc.

There is a chance that the HDD may have a recovery partition on it but I would suggest that you create your own recovery disk/s or recovery image to a USB device such as a thumbdrive with a storage capacity larger than 4GB, the steps for this can be found @ http://h10025.www1.h...product=4332805

The steps for performing a full system recovery @ http://h10025.www1.h...ct=4332805#N835

[Ztruker]

nonPCwiz, thanks for the explanation. I was completely confused (could you tell?).

Thanks Phil. I'm lurking again and will chime in if I have any ideas.

[phillpower2]

You are most welcome Rich

[nonPCwiz]

Thank you, Phil, for the response.

Ztruker, thank you for your patience.

Let me attempt to provide the answers you require, Phil.

I bought the laptop approximately two years ago from Ebay.

I know, crazy right, that I didn't check out the notebook right away. I did check it months later and for the past year and a half it's been sitting in the box underneath my desk once I discovered it did not work properly.

I also contacted the seller - but after the fact. Like I said, I made a terrible mistake not handling the problem when the laptop was under warranty.

I only now have sought help to hopefully fix the problem if possible, which is why I came to your forum.

Regarding the system restore, I followed these steps from the HP website:
Resolve boot device not found error message

But I still cannot perform a "hard drive" test because the laptop does not recognize that it has a HDD.

When I said "boot up normally", I mean when the laptop is turned on it indicates - BOOT DEVICE NOT FOUND. Windows 7 will not start.

In BIOS setup this is the sequence -

Under Boot Options -

Then Boot Order -

1. Notebook Hard Drive
2. Internal CD/DVD Rom Drive
3. USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk
4. USB CD/DVD ROM Drive
! USB Floppy
! Network Adapter

Then when F10 is clicked to save settings Windows boots up.

Windows just won't boot up when I turn on the laptop.

I hope this explains your questions.

Thank you so much for the assistance.

Edited by nonPCwiz, 21 July 2013 - 09:25 PM.

[Ztruker]

It sounds like your hard drive is dead. There are a couple things you can do.

1st, get a new hard drive.

Order the recovery disc from HP: http://h10025.www1.h...332805&sw_lang=

Or do the following:

you can download a legal copy with SP1 integrated from here:

Windows 7 Direct Download Links

Make sure you get the same version you have, Home Premium, Pro or Ultimate and 32 or 64 bit. Note that Basic or Starter is not available.

I recommend using ImgBurn at 4X speed (or the slowest available) to create the DVD from the downloaded .iso file.

You can do this on any computer capable of burning a DVD.

YOU MUST HAVE A VALID KEY TO INSTALL THIS .ISO. The one on the COA sticker on your computer will work.

You can also create a bootable USB Flash drive (4GB or larger) to install Windows 7 from.

• Download and run Universal USB Installer – Easy as 1 2 3
• Select Windows 7 from the first drop down list, all the way to the bottom
• Select the downloaded Windows 7 iso file
• Select your USB flash drive
• Click Create

For techies or folks who work on computers: Create Windows 7 Universal ISO With All Editions Selection On Install with ei.cfg Removal Utility.
This will fit on a 6GB flash drive or can be burned to a DVD.

I recommend using a USB Flash drive, much quicker install. It will also give you a clean install without all the HP bundled software.

[nonPCwiz]

Thanks for the quick response, Ztruker.

Do you have any recommendations regarding a new HDD?

Specific brand or favorite brand?

A Seagate HDD came with the HP laptop.

Needless to say, I'm not impressed.

Thanks.

Edited by nonPCwiz, 21 July 2013 - 09:25 PM.

[Ztruker]

If you can afford it, go with a SSD (Solid State Drive). Otherwise get a drive of same or larger size that runs at 7200RPM. Toshiba, Seagate, Western Digital, ... all the same. Unfortunately any one of them can go bad nat any time, which is why we stress doing image backups here so much.

Google is a good place to start looking:

laptop hard drives
laptop ssd drives

[phillpower2]

In addition to what has been suggested by Rich in the above reply #8 see if you can do the following for us, boot the computer the way you described in your reply #7;

Then when F10 is clicked to save settings Windows boots up.

Go to Start then to Search
Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On the left side click on Disk Management
On the right side you will see your hard drive.
Now I need you to take an expanded screenshot and attach it to your next reply.
Do the following to take a screenshot while the above is open and showing on your desktop.

To capture and post a screenshot;

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start...all programs...accessories...paint....left click in the white area ...press CTRL + V...click on file...click on save...save it to your desktop...name it something related to the screen your capturing... BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG ...otherwise it may be to big to upload... then after typing in any response you have... click on browse...desktop...find the screenshot..select it and click on the upload button...then on the lower left...after it says upload successful...click on add reply like you normally would.

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.

Once you have provided the screenshot that I have requested run the HDDs diagnostics tool;
Make sure you select the tool that is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Depending on the program it'll create a bootable floppy or a bootable DVD/CD.
If the downloaded file is the .iso type use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn the .iso file to a DVD/CD disk depending on your OS (select "Write image file to disc" option) and make the disk bootable.

Let us know the outcome please.

[Ztruker]

I completely missed where you can boot okay when you F10 out of BIOS setup so the hard drive is not defective.

Are the date and time messed up after you power off for awhile when not connected to A/C power? If so maybe there is a problem with the CMOS battery used to maintain BIOS Setup information.