Boot Device Not Found - Hard Disk F30

[GrimCreaper]

Went to start up my laptop and was met with a "Boot Device Not Found" screen.

A google search recommended I try hitting F2 and running a hard drive quick test, which came back almost immediately stating "SMART Check : not installed Short DST: not installed".  

This is as far as I managed to get with an hour of google searches.  A couple of comments I've seen mentioned opening it up and doing stuff with the hard drive but I have no idea what I'm doing and don't want to accidentally break something or ruin some internal thing.

Could someone please walk me through fixing this issue?  

Also, side note:  Now when I try powering the laptop on, ~75% of the time the screen will light up and sit on a black screen without doing anything until I power it back off, so I'm finding myself having to restart it multiple times just to access the same F2 or F10 menus.

[iomare · Accepted solution]

Hi,

It usually indicates that the hard drive has completely failed (most likely) or become dislodged. In rarer cases a problem with the cable, motherboard ...

The tests are not seeing the drive.

So you will need to try a different hard drive in there or a 2.5" SSD for a performance gain. You could also try booting into a Live Linux distro with USB once you have removed the drive to see if all is running well. No hard drive needed.

On page 67 of the service manual, you can see how to replace the drive.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04439615

You will need to reinstall the OS. You can take a look at this thread on how to install Windows 8.1

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/Hard-disk-problem/m-p/6908604#M...

Then you can install HP support assistant

https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/hpsupportassistant/hpsupport.html

drivers and software from product page (if necessary)

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-pavilion-15-n000-notebook-pc-series/5401225/model/5450035/pr...

Hope it helps,

David

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