7 Effective Solutions to “No boot disk has been detected or the disk has failed” Error

“No boot disk has been detected or the disk has failed” error usually pops up when users try to boot up computer. It normally refers to that the boot configuration is incorrect or the boot disk is corrupt. This article will introduce 7 approaches to this issue.

Are you disturbed by the “No boot disk has been detected or the disk has failed” error? It generally indicates that something wrong has occurred to the boot configuration or the boot disk on your computer. To eliminate it, you can utilize the following 7 solutions.

Solution 1: Ensure Boot Disk Connected Properly

There are chances that the error results from faulty or loose connections of your computer’s hard disk. Therefore, to identify if the faulty connection is culprit, you need to open the computer case to check the cables. Of course, this step seems a bit knotty for novices. So, you had better contact professionals for help.

Solution 2: Check Computer’s Boot Order

In addition, improper boot order on the computer can result in this error as well. So, you ought to check the boot sequence.

1. Firstly, restart your computer and meanwhile press “Delete” or “F1” or “F2” key to enter BIOS setup screen.
2. Then, turn to the “BIOS” tab in the above option list.
3. Next, you can check the boot device priority to see if the computer hard drive as the top priority. If not, change the order.
4. Lastly, press “F10” to save the changes and exit BIOS setup.

Solution 3: Run Diagnostic for Boot Disk Check

If the above means don’t help in fixing this error, it is likely that the hard drive is experiencing some issues. In this situation, you need to scan and repair the disk, such as using the inbuilt “Windows Diagnostic” tool.

1. At first, restart computer and press “F12” key.
2. When entering Boot menu, highlight “Utility Partition” or “Diagnostics”.
3. Then, press “Enter” to run the tool.
4. It will auto check all hardware on the computer and report the found issues.

Solution 4: “Automatic Repair” on Boot Disk

Aside from “Diagnostic”, Windows also offers “Automatic Repair” feature for disk repair.

1. To start with, insert Windows installation DVD.
2. Then, restart the PC.
3. Next, press any key to boot from the DVD.
4. Later, click “Repair your computer” > “Troubleshoot” > “Advanced Options” > “Automatic Repair”.
5. After the repair, try to reboot PC.

Solution 5: Run CHKDSK and SFC

Provided that the “Automatic Repair” is helpless, don’t be discouraged. Just utilize CHKDSK and SFC to repair the disk again.

1. At the outset, follow the steps in Solution 4 to enter “Advanced Options” list.
2. Then, choose “Command Prompt” option.
3. In the command prompt window, input the following lines and press “Enter”:

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows
chkdsk c: /r

4. Ultimately, exit command prompt and restart the PC.

Solution 6: Repair Boot Sector

Moreover, provided that the boot sector is bad, the error will occur too. Hence, it is essential to repair the boot sector.

1. Like the above solution, launch command prompt.
2. Then, try the following command lines one by one.

bootrec.exe /FixMbr
bootrec.exe /FixBoot
bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd

3. After that, exit command prompt and reboot PC.

Solution 7: Clean Install Windows

If unfortunately, all the solutions above are useless, it is possible that the criminal is the malfunctioning Windows system. In this situation, you can try “clean install Windows”. But, in this way, all the data in the boot disk will be erased. After that, you have to attempt data recovery, such as employing PST recovery software to get back lost PST data.

Author Introduction:

Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including recover mdf and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com