Boot Device Not Found

[Dakota_Winston]

Hello HP Forums,

     One night I opened my HP Pavilion Notebook 17. The laptop has never had any past issues or viruses.

The laptop started up with this message.

Boot Device Not Found

Please install an operating system on your hard disk.

Hard Disk (3F0)

F2     System Diagnostics

Memory Check : PASSED

SMART Check : NOT INSTALLED

Short DST : NOT INSTALLED

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

Dakota_Winston

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

orry to be the bearer of bad news, but that error message means that your hard drive has failed.

It will need to be replaced.

Once you have the replacement drive, you will need to use something known as HP Recovery Media to restore your PC to working condition. This is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities. In some cases, you may be able to order a USB stick instead of disks. You have to order these from HP; they can not be downloaded. (more on this below)

While you are waiting for the HP media to arrive, you should work at retrieving any files and folders you want to save from this drive, as follows:

1) Remove the hard drive from the PC
2) Purchase a USB-to-Hard Driver adapter kit
3) Download and install this utility on a working PC: http://www.majorgeeks.com/news/story/recover_data_in_3_steps_with_minitool_power_data_recovery_free_...
4) Connect the old drive to the working PC
5) Run the data recovery utility to see what can be retrieved from the old drive.

If that tools does not find what you need, an alternative is Recuva: http://www.piriform.com/recuva

And, if that does not work well, the best tool out there is this one, but only the trial version is free: http://www.file-recovery.com/

-------- Ordering Recovery Media ------------

You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click "Update". If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the "+" symbol to expand that entry and click on Order Media for details.

Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Service:

If you live in the US or Canada, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/phone-assist.html#section1

If you live elsewhere, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-contact-us.html

NOTE: After you get through, stay on the line until you are finally able to talk to some one -- it can take a while!

If you have trouble finding a phone number, then try: 1 (800) 474-6836

Good Luck