"No boot devices available', Windows 7

[GoldenBoy99]

The error says on start-up :
No boot device available -
strike F1 to retry reboot F2 for setup utility
Press F5 to run onboard diagnostics

F1 has never worked and I did diagnostics for 30 minutes and the results said all was good. It said I could do it for another 30 minutes but I decided not to. I figure what caused the problem was that my power when out for a second but it wasn't raining. I have a surge protector on that computer.

When I hit F2 and go under System then Boot Sequence it says that Onboard SATA Hard Drive is (not present). Does this mean the hard drive is broke? I have a one year warranty on this computer but I don't want to lose my 100 gigs worth of steam games and all my other files if the hard drive's broke. If it is can I transfer data between two hard drives with a cable or something?

I've tried unplugging it at least 3 times but no luck with that.

I'm pretty good with files on computers like installing mods on games but not this kind of stuff. I'll provide more info when its needed thanks in advance.

 

[ronintexas]

Try unplugging all the drives except the hard drive. Remove the cables from the hard drive and the sata connector from the mobo - and then plug them back in the hard drive only - try to see if the BIOS recognizes the drives. If not, replace the SATA cable with another one and try again.

Also - try a different sata port on the mobo.

If this doesn't work - there is a 99% chance you won't be able to do anything with the drive....it would need to go to a data recovery shop.

 

[ingtar33]

sounds like a dead hard drive to me. especially since the bios isn't picking it up. I'd unplug the computer from the wall. clr_cmos, unplug the hard drive from the power and SATA cables, unplug the SATA cable from the motherboard. plug the hard drive back in (if you have another SATA cable try that) plug the tower back in and boot your system. if the hard drive isn't present it's probably a safe bet it's dead.

 

[GoldenBoy99]

Thanks for the info guys. I did what ingtar did but I had no luck. I'm using my back-up tower now. I have one more question, can I take it to Best Buy Geek Squad or some other shop and recover the data even though it's broke? I was thinking about getting a new 1 TB external drive anyway, so I could do that, but can a PC boot of of an external HDD even if the internal is broke? And if you DO need a working internal for the PC to work I'm guessing you can buy a new one and replace the old one right? Either way I'm going to have to get an external or internal but I don't know which is better. Again thanks for helping me out so far.

 

[ingtar33]

if the platters don't spin then no... best buy/geek squad can't help. if the platters on the hard drive spin then there is some hope they could pull the data off for you. I've done it myself on a dead/sorta dead hard drive. However if the platters won't spin, there there is no hope for a "cheap" and "easy" solution. there are places with specialty equipment that can retrieve the data but it will be pricey.

 

[GoldenBoy99]

I found a possible solution on the internet that said to test the TVS Diodes ( the ones that protect against a surge) for their ohms amount and to see if they were burnt. Well they weren't burnt and the ohms on both were well above zero.

This makes me wonder if there's a problem with the hard drive at all. Is there anything else that could be causing the problem in the PC? I also wondered how to tell if the platters are spinning. I saw a youtube video of someone put a internal hard drive in an external hard drive enclosure to see if it was beeping, popping, spinning, etc. but I can't really tell because mine's in the PC. Any ideas?

 

[ingtar33]

well on the hard drives i've recovered data from, they all definately were dying, but they also "worked" to one degree or another. basically they didn't work well, it took a lot of playing with them, outside the pc, to get them working enough to pull data off them... but inside a pc they never showed up... basically what i used was an external converter to tun that internal hard drive (with a wall socket and usb cable) into something of a USB drive. then played with it until it finally booted to the extent that windows would detect it. It can take a lot of tinkering but if it's not fully dead, you can yank the data off the drive.

The big stumbling block for you, is the drive isn't showing in the bios. well until it shows up in the bios you're not going to go anywhere with this.

 

[GoldenBoy99]

I went and bought a 1 TB Seagate Internal Hard Drive today at Best Buy for $67. The guy said he could read and detect data on the old drive. He also said the platters were spinning. When I told him the error said No boot devices detected, he said it was probably a problem with my hard drive. He said if the drive doesn't fix the problem I can bring it back within 14 days.

I opened the package and it came with a Serial ATA cable and a power-adapter cable. My original power-adapter cable had 4 cords instead of 5 and the colors were different. My original Serial ATA cable was blue instead of orange and it was shaped different. Both of these cords were longer and barely fit into the HDD because of the room between it and another metal box. I first tried using both of the two original cords. It gave me the same error message. I tried the two new cords and again, the same message.

Does anyone have any over ideas? Is the problem with the drive? I really have no clue what to do now.

 

[ingtar33]

wait... let me clarify this...

you bought a new 1TB hard drive
you used the power cord adapters to connect to the OLD? hard drive
the old hard drive wouldn't boot
you connected the new power cord adapters to the NEW hard drive and the computer wouldn't detect it?

 

[GoldenBoy99]

Sorry, let me clarify. I first used the old power cord adapters to connect to the NEW HDD.

Then, I used the new power cord adapters to connect to the NEW HDD. It wouldn't detect it either time.

I guess if I'm tired of messing with this I could just call some repair man and hopefully he'd figure it out.

 

[ingtar33]

Sorry, let me clarify. I first used the old power cord adapters to connect to the NEW HDD.

Then, I used the new power cord adapters to connect to the NEW HDD. It wouldn't detect it either time.

I guess if I'm tired of messing with this I could just call some repair man and hopefully he'd figure it out.

it doesn't matter which SATA plug you put it into the motherboard bios isn't detecting the new hard drive?

 

[GoldenBoy99]

The statement you just made is correct. I have an idea though. If you put a new HDD in your PC without your operating system disc would it give you the same 'No boot devices detected' message? So maybe if I put the operating system disc in now with the new HDD it may work. The only problem is that my disc drive is jammed ( I bought it refurbished). I may be able to take it out and maybe seat it better but I'll see. I assumed the problem wasn't the absence of the disc but rather the HDD because it said it didn't detect any boot devices ( HDD). If I had the disk in would it work?

 

[ingtar33]

yes... it will give you a no boot device error... but it will STILL show up in the bios... that's the part i'm hanging on... i expect you to get that error without an os... the question is, is the device showing up in the bios or not.

 

[GoldenBoy99]

YESSSSS! It works!!!

Anyway, what I did: The HDD was detected in BIOS. It said SATA and then a long number. Then the problem was getting the OS disc in. What I ended up doing was opening up the PC, removing the disk drive from the PC while still plugged in and powering up the PC. When I tapped the eject button (it was still jammed) I fonzied the top of it and then it came out. I stuck the disc in and connected the PC. It went through what it was supposed to. What baffles me is that the guy at Geek Squad said that " I was pretty smart if I could install my own OS". Also, the local repairman said he charged $99 to install OS's. What? Am I missing something?

Thank you SO MUCH for helping me through this. I'll definitely pick your post as the solution but I was wondering one more thing. I'll probably be able to figure this out since we're back in my territory ( working with computers when they're actually working). When I hover over a icon on the taskbar it looks like the first link. Sorry I don't know how to add pictures in this forum. But it usually looks like the second link.

When I first came to the home screen just now I thought everything looked grainy and old. I wasn't sure though. I updated my PC with 15 mb of updates and it changed it dramatically. The only difference I can notice right away is the aforementioned hovering. It says there is 400 mbs of updates now which I'll probably install tonight ( sorry data limit) and this should fix it. I can hardly believe how fast everything is working now since I had to use my old 2007 Vista computer for the past few days.

It's fixed just in time to get Invisible Inc. which came out today, and it looks awesome. Are you a gamer? I'm so happy right now.

http://pc-authority.com/images/content/win7-taskbar-stacked.jpg

http://i.msdn.microsoft.com/dynimg/IC420541.png

 

[ronintexas]

WTG! There are tons of updates for Windows 7 (even Windows 8 has quite a few), but as you update the drivers, it went from standard VGA (default on windows installations) to a higher resolution as it detected your video card. After you finish the updates, I would update the drivers from Microsoft standard drivers to the ones from the manufacturer's website (mobo, GPU and other adapter you might have installed).

 

[ingtar33]

YESSSSS! It works!!!

Anyway, what I did: The HDD was detected in BIOS. It said SATA and then a long number. Then the problem was getting the OS disc in. What I ended up doing was opening up the PC, removing the disk drive from the PC while still plugged in and powering up the PC. When I tapped the eject button (it was still jammed) I fonzied the top of it and then it came out. I stuck the disc in and connected the PC. It went through what it was supposed to. What baffles me is that the guy at Geek Squad said that " I was pretty smart if I could install my own OS". Also, the local repairman said he charged $99 to install OS's. What? Am I missing something?

Thank you SO MUCH for helping me through this. I'll definitely pick your post as the solution but I was wondering one more thing. I'll probably be able to figure this out since we're back in my territory ( working with computers when they're actually working). When I hover over a icon on the taskbar it looks like the first link. Sorry I don't know how to add pictures in this forum. But it usually looks like the second link.

When I first came to the home screen just now I thought everything looked grainy and old. I wasn't sure though. I updated my PC with 15 mb of updates and it changed it dramatically. The only difference I can notice right away is the aforementioned hovering. It says there is 400 mbs of updates now which I'll probably install tonight ( sorry data limit) and this should fix it. I can hardly believe how fast everything is working now since I had to use my old 2007 Vista computer for the past few days.

It's fixed just in time to get Invisible Inc. which came out today, and it looks awesome. Are you a gamer? I'm so happy right now.

http://pc-authority.com/images/content/win7-taskbar-stacked.jpg

http://i.msdn.microsoft.com/dynimg/IC420541.png

that's the version of IE or windows causing that... windows 7 i think comes with IE8... we're now on IE11... so one of those windows updates will pump out a different look, if its not IE it will be SP1 that changes the look back to what you're used to..

As to the reason someone would charge $99 to install windows... it's "time consuming" it can take like 90-240 minutes to get windows fully installed and updated... longer if your net sucks. The reason why they would charge you $99 to do it is because it sucks up a good deal of time. frankly that's on the cheap side. My IT company charges $130 per hour... so if it takes 2 hours to get you set up you'd be forking over $260

 

[ronintexas]

"Cheap" labor (your typical small repair shop without networking experience) is $75.00 - and usually charge per half hour - you bring it in.

Typical labor is now $150 per hour, and the clock starts when they leave the shop. If you are more than 10 miles from the shop, you might even pay up to $0.50 per mile for travel as well as paying them to drive there....And some shops will charge you a minimum of a 3 hour service call.

You have to pay someone to do it, you have to train them, you have to buy their equipment, and there is a lot of expenses....so $99 is fairly cheap to install Windows.

 

[GoldenBoy99]

Yeah, the updates fixed the hovering thing. All is good now! It's back to getting all my stuff back now.