When you turn on your work computer that was working properly and you see a message – Boot device not foundthen you are likely to panic. With the error message, you can also see a message asking you to – Please install an operating system on your hard drive, hard drive
What does the boot device error not found?
When you install Windows on a drive, it becomes the boot device. When a computer starts, the BIOS or UEFI searches for the operating system installed on that drive and continues the process. You can read about starting Windows here. To return to the error code, when the BIOS or UEFI can not find any device from which it can boot, the error message that the boot device can not be found is displayed.
Boot device not found
Here are the troubleshooting tips you can follow to overcome Boot device not found Error. It can be a physical problem or a software problem.
- Check the connection with the boot drive
- Change the start order
- Fix boot record of recovery
- Check if the main partition is active
Be sure to prepare a bootable Windows USB drive. The last two options require you to start in advanced recovery mode to execute commands.
1) Check the connection with the boot drive
If you are using a custom PC supplied with a cabinet, we suggest you open it. Remove any connected power and check the wires. The drives are connected to the motherboard via a cable. Check if both ends are connected and do not lose. It's a good idea to detach, reattach and see if the boot works.
If you use a laptop. You have two options. If you have the skills to open the laptop and check if the connection is relaxed, continue. If not, take it to a service center if none of the other tips work.
2) Change the start order
When the computer starts, the BIOS or UEFI examines the boot order. The order indicates that you must first look for a boot drive. If for some reason a USB flash drive is connected to your computer and the first boot device is USB, you have fixed your problem. You can delete the USB key and start or access the BIOS and change the boot order.
If you have a good command of the hardware, try to solve the problem with the software. Use the bootable USB drive, boot into advanced recovery mode, and open the command prompt.
3) Fix boot record not found from recovery
In the command prompt, we will use the bootrec command to rebuild the BCD or otherwise known as Startup configuration data. It contains the boot configuration settings on how to start Windows. If it is corrupted, the BIOS will not be able to find the boot drive. You can use bootrec / rebuildbcd.
Read our detailed article on how to repair the Master Boot Record, in which we use the following command options:
bootrec /fixmbr bootrec /fixboot bootrec /scanos bootrec /rebuildbcd
Once done, when you start the computer, it detects the boot drive and loads Windows 10.
4) Check if the primary partition is active
On a hard disk with multiple partitions, the one on which you install Windows is called a primary partition. In addition to being primary, it must be an active partition. You must use the DiskPart tool to activate the partition. Since we can not access the GUI, we will run it from the command prompt.
DiskPart list disk select disk 0 list volume select volume X (where x is the volume where Windows is installed) active exit
Once done, the main drive will be active and you will be able to boot the computer without any problem. Make sure you select the correct volume; otherwise you will have to come back and change it again.
I hope it helped.
Related readings:
- Missing operating system
- Bootmgr is missing.