No bootable device

[Lynn11211]

Hello, I have a 15 month old hp pavilion7-4165dx entertainment notebook. For the last 6 months or do I would occasionally get a no bootable device message but after shutting down and restarting it was fine. It happened again but now it keeps saying that. I did the f10 disgnostic and the memory passes but hard drive test fails. When I start it up it says smart hard disk error. Detected imminent failure . The test says testing drive 1. Smart check: failed. Have I just lost everything on my hard drive? I have Pictures and items not backed up. Could it be a connection since sometimes it worked before after this error?

[lasvegaswireman]

The model number you supplied isn't a complete number but I think you are referrring to the HP Pavilion dv7-4165dx Entertainment Notebook Computer. According to the specs, your computer came with a 640GB / 5400RPM / SATAII / 2.5" hard drive. The SMART drive error you are getting typically means the drive has failed or is about to fail. While it could be the connection, it is very unlikely that it is. The AMD based dv7 series laptops came with following hard drive configurations;

Single hard drive configurations:

1-TB, 5200-rpm

750-GB, 5200-rpm

640-GB, 7200-rpm

640-GB, 5400-rpm

500-GB, 7200-rpm

320-GB, 7200-rpm

250-GB, 7200-rpm

and

Dual hard drive configurations:

2-TB (1-TB, 5200-rpm × 2)

1500-GB (750-GB, 5200-rpm × 2)

1280-GB (640-GB, 7200-rpm × 2)

1280-GB (640-GB, 5400-rpm × 2)

1000-GB (500-GB, 7200-rpm × 2)

640-GB (320-GB, 7200-rpm × 2)

500-GB (250-GB, 7200-rpm × 2)

Make sure you have a set of HP Recovery Discs... you will need these to restore the OS and HP Recovery partitions to the new drive. Replace the drive with one of the same size or larger and same RPM or faster. You may be able to get your personal files and folders off the hard drive. If you can get it to boot into Windows or a live Linux CD, you should be able to move the files and folders to an external drive. Actually there are many ways of recovering your files... just ask if you need more help.

[Lynn11211]

Thank you, I waited a few days and it gave me error but booted up and I moved a few files over to an external but after a half hour I received a warning again that drive about to fail. I quickly burned a repair disc but I didn't see where to burn recovery discs. Are they the same? I also made a system image on the external ( is 325gb)... Is this enough so that when I put in a new hard drive, it will work? Should I try to turn it on again and burn something different? Thanks for all your help!

[Sonye]

Hi, my daughter also  have a a HP  G72-253NR notebook. She only had it for 18months. It says the same thing about the Smart Hard disk check has detected an imminent failure. So does that mean She need a new hard drive?

[lasvegaswireman · Accepted solution]

No, a system repair disc is not the same as the recovery discs. See below for more information on creating the recovery discs. 325GB is a large amount of data, but the size of the image depends on the the original data size, the compression formula, and other factors.

Click "HP System Recovery topics list" for a list of system recovery topics.

Click "Creating Recovery Discs or Saving a Recovery Image to a USB Flash Drive (Windows 7)" for infomation on creating your recovery disc set.

Click "Performing an HP System Recovery (Windows 7)" for information on performing a system recovery.

[lasvegaswireman]

@ Sonye... be advised that in the future, you should start your own thread... but here ya go,

Yes, a new hard drive is needed to correct this issue in most cases. Here are the specs for her HP G72-253NR Notebook Computer. According to the specs, you will need a 640GB or larger, 5400rpm or faster, SATA2, 2.5" hard drive for a replacement. All other information previously stated applies.

[Lynn11211]

Thank you! I was able to create my recovery discs today as the drive hasn't completely failed yet.  It burned 5 recovery discs. I plan to buy a new hard drive, install it, and then use the discs.  Thanks for your help.

[Lynn11211]

Hi Frank, I bought a 1TB hard drive and replace it, proud of myself, but i have a question, i have my recover discs and I inserted the first one and the computer booted up and opened up the recover manager.

Am i supposed to use system recovery to its original state?  I thought my burning recovery discs and a system image on an external drive that it would recover my computer to its current state?

I read through the articles and dont seem to see where you are able to direct it to my system image - basically i guess the question is, is my system image I burned, does that contain all my files and photos, etc..? I thought it contained my computer in its current state that it was when I burned the system image.

(on one other note, I wondered if i could put the failing hard drive back in (in the second hard drive area since i have the capability to have duel hard drives on this computer) after I restore the computer and since its still working although saying it will fail soon, maybe i would be able to use it long enough to move files from it to the new hard drive i had put in the original position)

Thank you for any follow up help!!

Lynn