EliteBook 8460p will not boot from internal drive.

[Flummox--d]

As above my EliteBook 8460p will not boot from its internal drive be that an HDD or an SSD. I’m looking for help/guidance/abuse to help me recover the use of my notebook that I’ve had since new in 2012.

A boot problem occurred after I added Linux Mint in dual-boot with Windows. The install finished badly with lines of text scrolling down the screen, after which the 8460p reported “Please install an operating system on your hard disk. Hard Disk – (3F0)”.

I ran all the System Diagnostics in the startup menu and they all passed; despite the failure to boot.

I took a spare SSD and using my HP desktop, installed Linux Mint on that drive and confirmed it worked. I then put that working disk in the 8460p and got the same “Please install…” message. I took the SSD and put it back in the desktop. It worked.

I took a different approach. With a formatted SSD in the 8460p, I used a Linux installer USB and installed Linux Mint directly on the notebook. Same result: “Please install…”. I repeated this process with an HDD and still the OS was not recognised.

I’ve taken screenshots of various settings and diagnostic results and can post on request. I’ve now reached the level of my incompetence and welcome any suggestions that will help me get my treasured 8460p back working again. Thank you.

[BeemerBiker]

A restore of original OS is an option if all else fails.

Try a bios reset:  Bring up the BIOS and press F9 or whatever key sets the default.

I assume you have i7 and 8 or 16 gb or memory

try windows 11 install that bypasses the check.  Once installed enabled windows subsystem for Linux and install mint.

Reference this article. Windows 11 can be easily installed on just about any windows 7, 8 or 10 system as an upgrade.

I have run it on some really old HP systems with no problem.

For a new system that has UEFI bios and GPT but does not meet all requirements, Windows 11 can be installed using the Rufus trick.

Get Rufus here

Download Windows 11 with this link and use an 8gb or larger USB.
Windows 11 does not expire and Microsoft just leaves an activation reminder on the screen.
Otherwise use the windows 10 license.


Configure Rufus to use UEFI boot and select the option that creates a local account
so as to avoid the Microsoft email login. Use options shown below:


Uncheck the "Set regional options" if you are creating the USB on another system that has a different OS than yours.
Do not install 11 Pro if you are licensed for 10 Home.

To do a clean install then boot the USB else just insert it and find and run "setup"

You have to click "start" before those options show up.

If you do an upgrade you may not need to hunt for HP drivers. if you do a clean install of 10 or 11 then your Product ID can be used to find missing drivers.

[Flummox--d]

Thanks for taking time to offer your advice.

Let me fill in some requested detail, then I’ll reply to your post in sequence. The 8460p processor is an i5-2540M with 8GB memory, and before I messed with trying a dual boot it was running Win11. You’re right; it’s much easier updating the original than starting from a clean drive and trying to find drivers.

I have reset the BIOS. In fact, I’ve gone further than that and replaced the CMOS battery just in case. Neither the reset nor the new battery have changed the notebook's ability to boot into the OS.

I haven’t tried to re-install Windows, but I have tried multiple installations of Linux. It’s much easier to install Linux rather than Windows. Plus, there are no nag screens nor are there any issues with drivers - it just does it. Now I don’t know enough about Windows, but are you saying that even though the completed Linux installs have failed to reboot, there’s a different system in play with Windows that will bypass all that?

One question on the machine’s BIOS. Given the notebook is 13+ years old, I’ve presumed the BIOS is legacy BIOS and not UEFI. There’s an option in the setup to select UEFI, but it comes with a warning stating that it’s not supported (by HP) on my notebook. Any thoughts on this?

[Flummox--d · Accepted solution]

On the remote chance it might help someone, I'm responding to this post.

I threw caution to the winds and selected UEFI in the BIOS settings and ignored the "unsupported" warnings. Now I have a notebook that boots to the hard drive and allows me to select either Linux or Windows. Linux loads fine, but I will have to find a way to fix my Windows installation.

[BeemerBiker]

The information I provided will install Windows 11 through your UEFI bios and will bypass the win11 check by Microsoft.  I have installed Ubuntu desktop in the Win11 support Linux which runs fine as long as you have 4 cores and at least 8gb ram. You are restricted to certain versions of Linux. I do not remember if Mint was in the Microsoft blessed download list.

If a problem with drivers, use the ones in the Windows 7, 64 bit list here.

[Flummox--d]

👍Many  thanks. Much appreciated.