Solved No bootable device - even after fresh windows 7 install!

[Demi83]

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum so hope I'm posting this problem in the correct place. I have a friends HP pavilion g6 (not sure of exact model). On turning it on I get the following error 'No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key' I've tried a few things to fix this issue.

The hard drive when put in an external caddy and plugged into another computer seems to be working fine and contains all the correct files as far as I can see.

I went into bios setup and changed the boot order to boot from cd, windows cd booted up fine and installed windows 7, during the install I repartitioned and formatted the HDD. I was able to restart the laptop many times during this process with no issues and windows seemed to be working. However when I turned the laptop off the original error appeared when it was turned back on. I found a way of getting around this by accident and found that when I went into the bios setup and then exited it the laptop would then boot into windows. In fact booting from cd also only seems to work only after doing this.

Next I booted from a partition wizard bootable cd. The program shows a system reserved partition as it should but the windows partition was labelled just as '*' and was not active. I changed the windows partition to active. I also tried the following options with these results..

Set windows boot partition - Failed to find windows directory (although exploring the partition does contain the windows files)
Boot.ini editor - the selected partition does not contain boot.ini file
Rebuild MBR - process completed successfully

After restart I still have the same issue! Any other ideas on this would be greatly appreciated and feel free to ask any questions. I have repaired many laptops/pcs and have never come across this before.

Cheers Demi x

 

[Windows Sniper]

Hey there and welcome to the SF!
To answer your first question, yes this is the right place for your query. Now onto your problem.


I noticed that you have rebuilt the MBR, have you tried rebuilding the BCD also?


Using the install disk, repair the installation. Then using the Command line type:

• bootrec.exe /FixBoot

If that does not work, repeat with the following command:

• bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd

I have just found an external walkthrough that lists the best ways to go about solving this issue.
How to fix "no bootable device ? insert boot disk and press any key"

I think you will see some steps that you have already tried yourself, but all will help!

I will see if I can find some more information on this, as it seems like a bit of a challenge.
But let us know how it goes!

 

[Demi83]

Hiya,

Sorry for late reply, I tried your command prompt suggestions but still the same error. Also tried another format and different OS. Finally tried another hard drive and problem solved A bit strange as the original hard drive seems to be fine when in a caddy plugged into my PC, but obviously something wrong with it. Thanks for your advice

Demi x