Question

Please assist me to choose the right answer

1. You have just completed a clean installation of Windows 7 and have removed the installtion DVD from the drive. When you restart the system you receive the following error message , "Can't find bootable device." which of the following would you do to correct the problem?

a. Reinstall the DVD driver

b. Check Device Manager

c. Change the BIOS boot sequence

d. Look at Event viewer logs

2. Your PC displays the message “No system Disk or Disk Error”. Which of the following will produce this result?

a. The hard drive partition was not activated

b. The system file was not transferred to the hard drive

c. The CMOS lost the hard drive configuration. d. The system was not shut down properly

Answer 1

Obviously i go for option C (Change the BIOS boot sequence) for first question and option A (The hard drive partition was not activated) for second question.

I have explained briefly how to solve this type of errors. please follow the steps below to solve this error.

Why does computer say no bootable device?

"No bootable device" is part of the error message appearing on-screen, which frightens many users who have no idea about the inner working of computer. You can encounter this issue when computer fails to find a device or file to boot system. Here are some possible causes that may lead to this error.

1. Computer boot from an unbootable device

It happens that users insert an unbootable disk or CD in computer and wrongly set it as boot device, or change boot order in BOIS improperly. Normally, to ensure computer start smoothly, we should set the device that often loads operating system as the bootable device in the boot order page. Therefore, if you reset the boot device accidentally or forget to set the disk as the first boot, you definitely will get the problem. If you stuck in such problem you can check your setting in BIOS first.

2. Hard drive gets damaged

Hard drive damage or bad sectors can be another reason for the error being explained. Hard drive carries the operating system and boot files. If you haven't made any changes to boot sequence, the boot device is still the internal hard drive. A damaged hard drive is not able to fulfill read or write task normally, and the boot process will fail as well. Besides, if hard drive is badly damaged, it may not be detected by computer, which means there is not boot device anymore.

3. Operating system is corrupted

This computer boot device issue also can be caused by the crashing of installed operating system which might be attacked by virus or system files get deleted accidentally. Besides, MBR (Master Boot Record) corruption also leads to the issue. MBR sector is a PC boot section which leads system to read needed information to boot. Once this sector is damaged, you are very likely to get such boot device not found issues.

4. Virus Attack

More often, if virus infects your computer and damages essential system files and folders, computer can still recognize hard drive but there might be booting problem. This also happen if you delete some system files by mistake.

5. Motherboard Error

Sometimes hardware components malfunction such as motherboard error can cause problem ranging from losing wireless capabilities to detect external power source. If motherboard fails to detect hard drive, computer will not be able to receive signals from hard drive and give no bootable media problem.

How to fix no bootable device issue?

Method 1: Remove and put back hardware components

To troubleshoot the error, you need to restart computer and press F2 or whatever key that computer prompts to enter BIOS, for example you may need to press "Del" or F10 key to enter BIOS setup. Then check the option labeled "Primary Hard Drive". If it is "none", then computer does not detect the connected hard drive.

Then, shut off computer and unplug power cable so that you can remove anything connected to the computer such as hard drive, USB drives, mouse, etc. and put back all hardware to see whether the problem can be solved. Many times, a loose connection of hardware device can cause the error in discussion. But, if all these devices are plugged well and still get the error, you need to keep read rest solutions.

Method 2: System Repair

Step 1: Insert Windows installation disc or bootable USB disk that contains installation files for the same Windows version to USB port to the computer in question and restart. In this part, we use Window 7 installation DVD as example.

Step 2: Change boot order inside BIOS to have the DVD boot first.

When computer starts booting up, you can see instructions on screen to enter BIOS. You may need to press Del, F2 or other key to get into BIOS, which varies from computer to the other.

Go to Boot tab and use instructions given at the bottom or in the right pane to change boot order. Save changes, exit BIOS and restart computer.

Step 3: After the disc loads, you need to select language, time zone and Keyboard or input method and click "Next". Then you can see following screen where you should click "Repair your computer" on the bottom-left corner

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Step 4: Select one installation from listed choices after computer finishes scanning itself; just choose the most appropriate one from the list and continue. Sometimes a problem might be detected at the initial process and system may also prompts whether to repair problem automatically. You can either let system repair or just select No.

Step 5: Try "Startup Repair" first. When you get the "System Recovery Options" interface, you can see a list of choices that can help you repair a damaged Windows 7. In general, the first option "Startup Repair" is able to fix many different startup issues automatically. If this option can't troubleshoot the "no bootable device" issue on your computer, you'll have to Command Prompt option to solve problem manually.

Step 6: Enter command line "bootrec.exe /FixMbr" and press enter in Command Prompt window. If it is executed successfully, you'll be greeted with "The operation completed successfully". That means MBR (Master Boot Record) has been repaired. If you still can't get rid of the startup issue, you can try command "bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd" to rebuild BCD.

Method 3: Check bad sectors for hard drive

If there is nothing wrong with system or additional hardware devices, the problem may exist on hard drive itself. The thing you should do is to completely check and make sure no problem or bad sectors exist on hard drive where operating system installs. Since computer can't boot for the moment, you can perform following steps after connecting the hard drive to another computer.

Step 1:- Click Computer icon from desktop using the right mouse button and selects "Open".

Step 2:- Find and right click on the drive letter representing the affected hard drive and select Properties.

Step 3:- Select "Tools" tab and click "Check Now". Then you can see two options: "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors". It is advised to check both in order to completely scan and repair errors on this drive.