Imagine your boss calls you for the submission of the task which finished its deadline, and you opened your computer for an important task, but you see some error in it. There is nothing more frustrating than this, right!
This error is called Boot device Not Found, which is quite a common error. Let's dive into the reason it occurs and how to resolve the error.
Understanding the error: Boot Device Not Found
When you turn the computer on, The BIOS looks for the program that is actually stored on the boot device to launch the OS. Boot devices can read the software that can start a computer. The simple examples of boot devices are CD-ROMs, external hard drives, USB drives, and all storage media that could store the PC's information on it.
When you install any new Windows operating system, it comes with bootable devices. During booting, the BIOS looks for devices and drivers installed properly or not. If the Bios cannot locate something properly, it gives this error Boot Device Not Found.
When you see the error Boot device Not Found, it doesn’t mean that PC drivers are not installed, or they failed to function. Here the Problem is your bootable device couldn’t locate the driver and this will prevent the driver to boot until we fix the error.
Reasons of Boot Device Not Found Error
Let's take a look at reasons behind "Bootable Device Not Found" error:
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Failure of the Hard Drive
In most cases, the inevitable failure of the Hard Disk causes the problem. Maybe, cables are loosely connected.
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Confused BIOS
When you change the configuration of the system recently, the BIOS attempts to boot from a wrong storage device, such as an External Hard drive or CD-ROM that doesn’t contain the computer boot program.
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Corrupted boot sector
We store the metadata inside the hard drive and If it is corrupted, this might show blank to the BIOS. When the BIOS does not know where the bootable device is located, it believes that no bootable device is found.
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Malfunctioning SATA/IDE cable
The SATA/IDE cable mainly used for connecting the computer hard drive to the motherboard. Without the SATA/IDE cable connection, the BIOS cannot locate the bootable device to boot the system. If this cable fails as the BIOS cannot locate the bootable device, it is likely that it shows the error boot device not found error.
How to resolve the Boot Device Not Found Error?
The following are the few ways from which you can troubleshoot the Error Boot Device Not Found Error.
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Check the hard drive connection:
As we discussed earlier, a SATA/IDE cable connects the computer hard drive to the motherboard. If this connection is broken, then the BIOS couldn’t locate the bootable devices. So first you need to check whether this connection is properly arranged or not, If not fix all the cables properly then turn on the computer and see if everything works properly.
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Check your BIOS settings
Follow the below steps to check the Bios settings.
- When you turn on the computer, depending on the version, it asks you to press ESC, F1 or F8, to open the BIOS menu. Press them to enter the BIOS menu.
- In the BIOS menu, GO to the BIOS setup or device selection menu.
- Look for the internal hard disk drive here. If the internal hard drive is not listed in the list of drivers that are shown, then probably the hard drive is the problem.
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Reinstall the OS
By reinstalling the operating system, you can recover your drivers and so that BIOS can locate those drivers. Now, as the new drivers are in the exact place where the BIOS looks for the Boot device, therefore, the issue can be rectified.
Note: Don’t forget to back up your data to the external device before you reinstall the OS.
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Try changing the boot order
Every time when your computer boots, the BIOS follows a boot order. If instead of searching through a specified location, if it could locate through the USB that is connected to the computer, your issue will be resolved.
Try working with these troubleshooting solutions, they might work for finding the cause of the issue and sometimes could rectify your issue. If still, you face the issue after trying with the above methods; they check your PC with the data recovery professional right away.
Conclusion
It is not always easy to deal with startup errors. The major cause for the startup errors is not maintaining your PC properly, downloading vulnerable files to your PC, unusual power off of your computer without saving the data into the disk may corrupt the data on the disk. It is always advisable to turn off your computer after a proper shutdown. These minor efforts such as downloading files after a safe scan, log off your system before you turn it off could save you from these issues. It is always a risk dealing with these errors, you might lose your data because of this. Anyhow, the article gives you a brief on how they deal with such types of errors.
