Laptop unable to boot from HDD, recognized fine

[Christopher Vinciguerra]

Hi. My Toshiba laptop, model number C55t-B5109, has a weird issue that just arose recently.I am unable to boot from my hard drive after installing an OS.

I don't use the laptop often, and when I do I often switch around OS's for different purposes whenever I need it. On this particular case, I was installing a lightweight Linux distro. I booted the Laptop up, went into the UEFI settings, changed the boot order as it's the only reliable way to boot from a USB media, and proceeded to boot.
The USB booted successfully and I went through setup. The distro installed onto my hard drive successfully and gave no errors installing.
However, after I went back into the UEFI and changed the boot order back, I kept getting a no bootable device found error.
I started troubleshooting. First, I confirmed that the computer did SEE the drive. I went back into the installer and sure enough, the drive was there and already recognized that Lubuntu was already installed on it. I was thoroughly confused. I assumed that my MBR or GPT was messed up (I wasn't sure which the drive was currently using), so I started up GParted and cleaned the drive and reset the partition table. I installed it again, yielding the same results.

I have no idea what I should do now. I don't use the laptop much and could probably do without. It's also out of warranty. Any suggestions?

 

[Sedivy]

The boot record is typically on a separate small partition (couple hundred megs), not shared with either of your systems. Did you clear this as well before installing a system?

 

[rgd1101]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from Christopher Vinciguerra : "Toshiba Laptop unable to boot from HDD"

Hi. My Toshiba laptop, model number C55t-B5109, has a weird issue that just arose recently.I am unable to boot from my hard drive after installing an OS.

I don't use the laptop often, and when I do I often switch around OS's for different purposes whenever I need it. On this particular case, I was installing a lightweight Linux distro. I booted the Laptop up, went into the UEFI settings, changed the boot order as it's the only reliable way to boot from a USB media, and proceeded to boot.
The USB booted successfully and I went through setup. The distro installed onto my hard drive successfully and gave no errors installing.
However, after I went back into the UEFI and changed the boot order back, I kept getting a no bootable device found error.
I started troubleshooting. First, I confirmed that the computer did SEE the drive. I went back into the installer and sure enough, the drive was there and already recognized that Lubuntu was already installed on it. I was thoroughly confused. I assumed that my MBR or GPT was messed up (I wasn't sure which the drive was currently using), so I started up GParted and cleaned the drive and reset the partition table. I installed it again, yielding the same results.

I have no idea what I should do now. I don't use the laptop much and could probably do without. It's also out of warranty. Any suggestions?

Disable secure boot in the bios.
Secure boot allows booting only from the drive on which the os was installed.

Already done. I also cleared the CMOS and disabled it again.
And your responce on what it is doesnt correlate with my problem. I am TRYING to boot from the drive the OS is on.

Already done. I also cleared the CMOS and disabled it again.
And your responce on what it is doesnt correlate with my problem. I am TRYING to boot from the drive the OS is on.

If there was a previous os installed is what I was thinking of.

Clearing the CMOS would remove all of that, correct?

Clearing the CMOS would remove all of that, correct?

Clearing cmos sets the motherboard to the default settings.
I think secure boot is the default.

How do I disable secure boot?

To do this, open the Settings charm — press Windows Key + I to open it — click the Power button, then press and hold the Shift key as you click Restart. Your computer will restart into the advanced boot options screen. Select the Troubleshoot option, select Advanced options, and then select UEFI Settings.Nov 15, 2013

 

[Christopher Vinciguerra]

The boot record is typically on a separate small partition (couple hundred megs), not shared with either of your systems. Did you clear this as well before installing a system?

Clearing the partition table would remove all partitions if I'm not mistaken

 

[Sedivy]

Sorry I'm not expressing myself well. Here it is explained better:
http://linuxbsdos.com/2014/06/02/how-to-delete-boot-managers-from-a-uefi-boot-menu/
Not sure it'll help but one of those old boot records from previous installs might be tripping you up. That or you need to rebuild the ones for your current OS installations.