Laptop won't boot up - says SSD hard disk is not installed (3F0)

[Just_Jez]

Hi all, my laptop won't boot up anymore.  I hit the power button and it lights up but gives me a black screen for a few minutes when eventually it displays the error message 'Boot device not found' and 'Please install an operating system on your hard disk'.  It also displays 'Hard Disk (3F0) followed by F2 System Diagnostics.  I accessed the diagnostics and tried to run a hard drive test but it tells me that the hard drive is not installed.  It's an SSD 256 GB PCIe NVMe M.2.  I haven't made any hardware changes since buying the laptop. My kid uses this laptop so not sure if he made any software downloads or updates recently. Incidentally the warranty expired 2 months ago.  Laptop is 14 months old.  Model is HP Envy - 13-aq0011ms. i5-8265U. 8GB DDR4 SDRAM.  I'm guessing the SSD is fried but if anyone tell me otherwise it would be much appreciated.  Is it worth taking off the back panel and trying to re-seat the SSD?  Has this worked for anyone?

[WAWood]

@Just_Jez 

An m.2 SSD slides into a socket on the system board and then screws down onto the board.  It's tightly fixed in place and is not going to work lose.  So, there is no "re-seating" to be done.

The hard drive diagnostics, unfortunately, often simply do not work with the newer n.2 SSDs, so it telling you there is no drive is not accurate information.

It's possible the SSD is actually OK and the boot files have become corrupted.  If you want to try fixing this, then read below ...

Windows PCs use two different sets of files to get you to a working desktop.

In terms of the first, Windows boot files, you need to follow the instructions below to create boot media from Macrium Reflect (MR) that can be used to rewrite/repair the boot media on your PC:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from this link on a working PC: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

That will create MR bootable media. Then, you can boot your PC into WinPE using that media.

Have patience, as that can take a while to start and bring up the screen.

Once the screen is there, select the option to Fix Windows boot problems. It will then search for the OSs installed and list them, Select the one you want to repair and click Next.

It will now do the repairs, listing the things it has done.

When finished, select the option to Restart the PC.

If this worked, the boot repair succeeded and you will have your PC back.

But if it did not, the Windows system files are most likely corrupted and you would have to reinstall Windows from scratch to fix that.

[Just_Jez]

@WAWood - thanks for responding so quickly.  I followed your instructions and got as far as selecting 'Fix Windows boot problems' and when the window opened to show me the 'Installed Windows Operating Systems' it doesn't list my operating system.  Despite this I hit 'Next' anyway and got a message to say the 'No partitions found on drive 0.  Restore a partition before fixing boot problems'.  After hitting OK it opens the 'Active Partition' window but none are listed.  

Are there any other steps I can take?  From your message you mention that I may need to re-install Windows from scratch but I'm concerned that it's not recognizing the SSD.  Any further help would be much appreciated.

[WAWood]

@Just_Jez 

From your comments, it sounds like the SSD partitions got corrupted -- and if that is the case, your only option now is to do a complete Windows reinstallation.  The MR boot device has a mini file manager which you can open to see if it finds any partitions on the SSD.  But if the SSD is blank, it won't see it. 

At this point, you would need to create recovery media to see if that sees the SSD to allow you to restore Windows.

Since your PC can not successfully do an internal factory reset, your only ways to accomplish this are the following:
- Factory reset using external HP image you make
- Factory reset using external HP image you buy

Each of these is discussed in some detail below ...

---------- Factory reset using external HP image you make ----------
HP provides a Cloud Recovery tool that you can use, together with a 32GB USB stick, to create your on HP reset media.

Here is the link: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06162205

This works the same as the factory reset described above.

---------- Factory reset using external HP image you buy ----------
For those PCs not supported by the Cloud Recovery, in some cases, HP offers Recover Media for sale. This can not be downloaded; instead, it must be ordered from HP.

HP Recovery Media is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities.

In some cases, you may be able to order a USB stick instead of disks.

You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click &quot;Update&quot;.<br><br>If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the &quot;+&quot; symbol to expand that entry and click on Order Media for details.

Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Support.

HP contact info: https://support.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp?openCLC=true

If HP no longer carries the media you need, another site you should check for HP Recovery Media is: http://www.computersurgeons.com/

These work the same as the factory reset described above.

[Just_Jez]

@WAWood - thanks again for your response.  I tried creating a system recovery disk which I was only able to do for the computer that I used as it asked for a product ID and would not accept the ID for the broken laptop.  So I put in the ID for the laptop that I used to create the disk which is also an HP Envy but the 15" 360 and it successfully created it but I could not use the recovery disk on the 13" laptop.

I also tried looking at http://www.computersurgeons.com/ but they didn't have the laptop listed to get the specific media I needed.

Then I created a Windows 10 installation form the Microsoft web site but I ran into the same problem with not recognizing the SSD.

After that I looked into buying the recovery media directly from HP.  They did have the specific media that I need but it would cost $60 to purchase.  I'm worried that if I buy this that it still won't work as it won't see the SSD.  It could be that I need both the recovery disk from HP plus a new SSD installed.  Is that what it sounds like to you?