No Hard Drive Installed Error Working Fine Earlier

[MrsBruck135]

Please help! I was doing homework and my computer just crashed. For the last hour I have tried to figure out the issue and I am getting a “No Hard Drive Installed” error. My computer is no longer under warranty. I have homework due and I work from my computer, the virtual agent was no help. Including a photo for reference. Any help is appreciated!

 

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

The hard drive has died (crashed) and needs replacement. Likely data can be recovered from the old one but every time you try to boot the system from that hard drive you risk losing more data. Post back if you want to proceed with replacement of the hard drive. I assume you are no longer under warranty. 

[MrsBruck135]

Correct, no longer under warranty, I use this computer for school and work, I am starting to panic honestly, any help is appreciated. 

[Huffer]

If nothing has changed from when you bought it the hard drive is actually one of the newer "gumstick" M.2 SSD modules. These can be fairly easily replaced but retrieving data from them is not super easy as it takes some specialized hardware. Give me some idea of your technical comfort level before I try to write a long post explaining how to replace the SSD, reinstall Windows and retrieve data from the SSD.