Boot device not found

[Yiiyyaa]

My Titi gave me the computer because she doesn’t need it. She bought it last year. Her daughters (my nieces/ cousins.) had it for 3 days & my oldest niece did something to the computer to where it now says 

Boot Device Not Found

Please install an operating system on your hard disk.

Hard Disk (3F0)

F2      System Diagnostics 

For more information, please visit: www.hp.com/go/tech enter/startup 

* I just need help with being told what to do to fix it please! I need it for work & school. 😞

[WAWood]

@Yiiyyaa 

Sorry for the bad news, but there is not much you can do to salvage this laptop.  

Ordinarily, when a laptop no longer boots into Windows, this means that the boot records (known as the BCD) have become corrupted due to a failing drive and running diagnostics confirms this to be the case. Folks then replace the laptop drive, use the HP Cloud Recovery option and a 32GB USB stick to make recovery media, boot their laptop from that media and do a full restore.

With this PC, this is a much more difficult situation.

First, this PC does not actually have a laptop hard drive. Instead, it has a memory stick configured to work like a "disk drive" -- so, it has a stick of EMMC memory instead of an HDD. This is very small, usually 32GB, so it is too small to do any major Windows Updates since Windows takes up nearly all of the "drive".

Second, the SSD, unlike the SATA SSDs in other laptops, can not be replaced by the consumer. So, when it fills up, you can't replace it with a larger one. And when it fails, you can't replace it with a new one.

Thus, you can try running diagnostics to test the drive -- but if it fails, you will have to take this PC to a laptop repair facility to have them replace the SSD. You can not replace it yourself.

To check the drive you have to follow these steps:
1) Press Esc key repeatedly, several times a second, while rebooting the laptop. Do NOT hold the key down, just press it over and over.
2) Eventually, you will see an HP Startup Menu
3) Press the Function key for testing the hard drive (usually F2) and let it run.