Windows 7: Computer boots to 'Asus Express Gate' and can't find my boot device

Hi all, and thanks for taking the time to read this topic.

As the title explains, whenever I turn my computer on it goes to something called 'Asus Express Gate' at which point I'm presented with a few options, one of them to select a boot device by pressing F8. The other options I'm presented with are to go into BIOS Setup, Display BIOS POST Message, or Ez Flash 2. I didn't want to mess about with any of them really as I've no clue as to what they do.

Anyway, so I press F8 to go into the boot menu and I'm then presented with a screen asking me to select a boot device, or press ESC to boot using defaults. The only device that comes up is "CDROM:SM-SONY BD-ROM BDU-X1" which I think is my blueray disk drive. I didn't want to boot from that, so I press ESC instead. This then presents me with a black screen stating the following: "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key."

So this is pretty much where I'm stuck, and I'd really appreciate any help.

Cheers,
Alex.

Edit: Oh and I'm sorry if I've posted this in the wrong forum, if I have I'd really appreciate it if you could let me know where to post it.

Check the cables (power and data) that go to your hard drive. Was this PC working OK before? It sounds like your hard drive is not being detected in the BIOS. How old is this motherboard/system? Are the Time and Date correct in the BIOS? If not the BIOS battery may have failed and your BIOS settings are being lost on the reboot.

Express Gate is an Asus feature for the computer to perform some functions without booting into an operating system. I don't recall most of those functions; I think that one may have allowed playing music from an MP3 player through the PC's sound system. (That may only work with onboard sound.) I've always disabled it in the BIOS settings.

Your more serious problem is that the PC isn't seeing your boot drive. As alphanumeric wrote, it could be asimple as a cable coming loose. (SATA cables can be easy to dislodge.) I don't know about the CMOS battery, but I'd think not. The HD could also have died, or the motherboard itself could be defective. Difficult to diagnose remotely, especially so since you've provided little information that might help.

Try Display BIOS post message choice to see if it will proceed to boot HD.

Enter BIOS setup to see if HD is registering. Try resetting BIOS to defaults.

Download the maker's HD Diagnostic and burn to CD using Windows Image Burner, bootto run it's extended CD scan.

Firstly, to everyone who's replied so far a big thanks for taking the time to help me.

I'll check the cables that go in now, though I should probably say I'm definitely not the kind of person who knows what they're doing :P The PC was working fine up till last night when it was functioning as usual, but this morning when I booted it said issues occurred. I think the system is 2-3 years old? I'm not 100% sure on that one sorry. The time & date are set correctly in the BIOS.

Right, what kind of other information could I provide that would help you? And if it isn't painfully obvious on how to obtain said information, could you tell me how too please?

I did the first thing you suggested, and it took me to the normal screen I get when I first turn on my computer (the black consolely like thing with American Megatrends at the top, looks like this: http://file048b.bebo.com/7/large/200...472469929l.jpg - not my picture though). It then holds on this screen for a while before sending me to a new screen saying "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key".

I don't know how to see if the HD is registering in the BIOS (sorry, I'm a bit thick) but I did try resetting the BIOS to the default settings to no avail. After trying the solutions already mentioned, I'll try using that HD diagnostic thing.

Thanks again,
Alex.

As well as the above advice - If I remember right - with Asus boards you can disable the express gate in the bios settings, try disabling it and see how things go after that.

I agree with what was said above...

In addition, if you press either F8 or F10 during boot up (I cant remember which key off-hand) - as soon as you see the bios screen, you should then get to boot options from which you can choose which devices to boot your computer from. See what devices are available and post back with what options you see.

The time to select boot device can be short. So make your choice quickly. On my Asus board on start up or reboot I get a Asus Express Gate with options. Select Delete on the keyboard and it should get you into bois. F8 should give you boot options.
Now filling out your systems specs ((My System Specs)) using User CP at the top of every page will help us help you.

Look for storage devices on Display BIOS post, reboot and Enter BIOS setup to see if a Storage (or HD) device is shown. In addition on the Boot menu via F8 see if there is a HD shown, or just the DVD drive.

If a HD doesn't appear in any of these three places, then it's not registering in BIOS. Check the cables and test the HD as given.

Hi again, and thanks for the help everyone - the issue is now resolved. Turns out the hard drive was just knackered, and that something called its heads were loose.

Thanks for reporting back.