How To 

How to fix Windows 10 error ‘Boot Device Not Found’

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Seeing ‘Boot Device Not Found’ when you try to start your computer is not an error anyone wants to see. It means Windows cannot be loaded either because of a hardware failure, misconfiguration or file corruption. It is a serious error but it can be overcome. Here is how to fix the Windows 10 error ‘Boot Device Not Found’.

Fix Windows 10 error ‘Boot Device Not Found’

There are a few ways we can troubleshoot ‘Boot Device Not Found’. You will need your Windows 10 installation media for a couple of them.

1. Reboot your computer and enter the BIOS.
2. Make sure your boot drive appears as the boot device within the BIOS settings.
3. If it isn’t, change BIOS to boot from the drive and retry. If the hard drive doesn’t appear in the BIOS, it might indicate either the hard drive, cable or IDE/SATA slot might be faulty. Try a different slot, cable and drive if you can.

If you use an HDD, make sure the drive is set to IDE or ATA/SATA in your BIOS. If you use an SSD, make sure it is set to AHCI.

If the boot drive is present in your BIOS, it means it is likely not at fault. If that is the case, try this:

1. Boot from your installation media and select Troubleshoot instead of Install.
2. Select Troubleshoot, Advanced options and Command Prompt.
3. Type or paste ‘Chkdsk /r’ and let the process complete.
4. Try booting into normal mode once more.

Finally, if those two methods don’t work and the hard disk is found by the BIOS, you will have to try a reinstall.

1. Boot from your installation media and select Install once loaded.
2. Elect to save your files and settings and complete the reinstallation process.

Reinstallation of Windows 10 is the task of last resort but should overcome any configuration issues causing the Boot Device Not Found error.

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