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Archived This topic has been archived. Information and links in this thread may no longer be available or relevant. If you have a question create a new topic by clicking here and select the appropriate board.

‎02-07-2021 08:49 PM

HP Recommended
Product: HP Slimline Desktop 290-a0019
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)

Hi. I recently installed HP Support Assistant on my stock HP Slimline Desktop, and was informed that I should update the BIOS. I complied.

I did attempt to back up the BIOS first, but that failed. The tool recommended backing up to my hard drive, but couldn't find space even though it's less than half full (1TB drive, huge). Apparently, it isn't able to resize the partition. So, I went ahead with no backup.

Now, after an apparently successful BIOS update, it won't boot. It does start but just displays a diagnostic screen:

Boot Device Not Found
Please install an operating system on your hard disk.
Hard Disk (3F0)
F2 - System Diagnostics
For more information, please visit: www.hp.com/go/techcenter/startup
The hard drive tests out okay. In fact, if I boot into a Windows 10 Install USB and start a command prompt, I can actually view the contents of the disk; it all seems to be intact. It just won't boot into Windows.
(I originally thought it must be encrypted even though I never enabled Bitlocker, but as I can browse my old Users directory, it clearly isn't).
Does anyone know how I can restore my Windows system? It seems the BIOS update trashed the boot record or something, though it appeared to complete successfully.
Thanks.
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