Boot disk not found 3F1 and 3F0

[mvnelson422]

On booting my laptop displays the error "Boot device not found" "hard disk 1 - (3F1)". When I run system diagnostics hard drive check no hard drive is found and the error changes to "hard disk - (3F0)". When I bought the laptop I had a small solid state boot drive installed. I'm guessing that is what is referred to as 3F1 but I really don't know where that is or how I can check the connection. It isn't a removable drive I don't think. In any case disconnecting and reconnecting the main hard drive doesn't change anything. I've also tried removing all batteries to reboot the bios and that didn't fix anything.
When I hit F9 on boot up a new menu opens with the option Boot from EFI file, but when that is selected the error "no valid file system available" displays.

How do I check the connection on the ss boot drive?? Does it sound like that is the problem and how can I fix it? Do I need to reinstall an operating system entirely on the main hard drive?

[CherylG]

Sounds like your main hard drive has failed and will have to be replaced.

[mvnelson422]

When you say "main hard drive" what do you mean? When I disconnect the 1TB removable hard drive the error changes from 3F1 to 3F0 at boot up. I can't find the secondary drive though. There aren't any onboard mSATA connections that I can find

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

I mean the 1tb hdd where Windows is installed. Usually the 3f1 error shows at boot up as a Smart disk error. Then changes to 3F0 when running Diagnostics if the hdd is not working and detected- same as when you unhook it, even if it were good you would then get 3F0 no hdd detected.

[CherylG]

You could try a hard reset first - with hdd installed of course.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01684768

[mvnelson422]

I did try that already thanks. Looks like the hdd is bad.