Computer says non-system disk

[BigJoe4]

Hello, yesterday I turned off my compaq desktop. The very next day, I got a 'media boot failure, check cable error' when trying to boot windows. 

So I went into the boot menu, and apparently my hard disk (which was 500 gbs by the way) had 0mbs of space

(sorry for the quality of all of the photos)

I restarted, and it gave me the same media boot failure, and also gives me a non-system disk error.

I restarted the computer, and it kept giving me the same error.

I restarted the desktop a few other times, and the hard disk was 500gb again, and windows booted. Then when I turned the computer off that night, and turned it on the next day, it was 0mb again. It also gave me the same errors again.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

I would say that you will need to replace the hard drive and reinstall the operating system.

[BigJoe4]

Thank you for the solution, but how should I reinstall windows on a new hard drive? I still have the windows activation key, but how would I install windows on a completely new hard drive. I also don't know how I can recover windows from the current drive either.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Since you had already upgraded to W10, reinstalling Windows does not require a product key.

Make W10 bootable installation media using the media creation tool at the link below.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you are asked to enter a product key during the installation, select the 'I don't have a product key' option, and W10 will install and automatically activate once you are connected to the internet.