Grandson's Acer Aspire Laptop was dropped.

[JWWebster]

Little Chris mom accidentally dropped his laptop last night. Now it says: No bootable device-- insert boot disk and press any key. Where will I get a boot disk?

[AJ]

Where will I get a boot disk?

What operating system do they have installed on the laptop?


Have you tried to boot it into safe mode?


The boot disk would be the installation disk that come with the computer or the restore disk the computer asked them to make when the computer was booted up for the first time.


At least that is what I think. Been using a macbook for so long now I forget a lot about windows.


If they don't have a install disk or recovery disk the hard drive maybe portioned with something on it that will help repair it.


I would try to boot it into safe mode and see what happens.

[schleven]

if it says no bootable device, it means that either the hard drive with the boot data has failed, or that the hard drive is not being recognized.  I had a similar problem with a laptop and opened up all the panels on the bottom and disconnected and reconnected all that I could.  I turned it on and it worked after that.


If the hard drive is not being recognized, then inserting a boot disk might make it boot but you wont have anywhere to write the OS.

[AJ]

That makes sense. Maybe the cable on the hard drive got jared loose.

[JWWebster]

OK I am gonna try doing just that and report back.

[JWWebster]

Here is what I found:
I removed the keyboard to access screws holding the case on. I disconnected the HD and reconnected it. Still won't boot. Anybody know where I can get another HD cheap? Someone said Win7 OS will boot up automatically with new hd install. Is that the case?

Found a nice video which shows what I had to do to get to the HD:




Here is my redneck version:

[Joebeef]

JW, try starting the computer and hold down alt key and F10 key at the same time while computer is starting until you get into recovery mode, if it does go into recovery mode then just follow directions....don't know what operating system you have.

[Joebeef]

From acer's support website....

How to recovery your system from boot-up
1.Locate the Alt key, to the left of the space bar, and F10, on the top row of keys.
2.Power the system on.
3.When the system is powered on, tap the Alt and F10 keys together at the same time when the Acer splash screen appears.
It should state "Please wait a moment..." with the Acer logo in the upper left hand corner.
4.At the eRecovery Management menu it will ask you how to restore.
5.Click on the restore option you would like to use.

If it doesn't work you must have damaged the hard drive, if you buy a hard drive you will need a disc to install windows which doesn't come with the drive.....EXPENSIVE!

[JWWebster]

This laptop does not have a cd rom drive. I tried the suggestion and it still reads a bunch of garbage like:

PXE-MOF: Exiting PXE ROM.
No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key
blinkin cursor

If we locate and obtain another hard drive and install it, is it Plug and Play?

[AJ]

If we locate and obtain another hard drive and install it, is it Plug and Play?

If it doesn't work you must have damaged the hard drive, if you buy a hard drive you will need a disc to install windows which doesn't come with the drive.....EXPENSIVE!

No, it's not plug and play. Just plug.


You need to install a operating system on the hard drive for it to play.

[JWWebster]

Crap! I thought so but some folks seem to think that win7 is diff than other OS in that it has a built in boot logic  that will automatically reload in all that info into the new HD. What ya thank? So from what I seen the PC a doin (blinkin cursor) and from what I be seein online I is led to believe yall just plug her in and party on. Am I wrong?

[AJ]

I thought so but some folks seem to think that win7 is diff than other OS in that it has a built in boot logic  that will automatically reload in all that info into the new HD.

Where would this info come from?


Remember the old HD don't work and you can't get online.

[tgoods]

You could run Linux for free.  I recommend Linux Mint.  Load it onto a usb drive.  You may have to log into the bios to enable booting from the usb.  When you first boot up, don't install. You can just run Linux Mint from the usb drive.   Try to mount the C: drive.  Save any files you need. Once you have everything backed up, install Linux Mint onto your harddrive.

[JWWebster]

In win 7 the motherboard contains all OS info. All the HDD needs to do is be a good one is my understanding. Of course the previous personal info is all gone but it would be like a new install? Hell I do not know.

[JWWebster]

Maybe the new HD has pre-installed win7? That would make sense to me. Sure everythang would be lost from the original hd but the thang would magically come to life and we could start over at square 1? Anybody? Maybe the new HDD will come with a software thingy? Love pcs but ain't much into fixing them.