Unbootable Toshiba Laptop help!

Kaybenson

Hi guys,

I kept my laptop with a friend while i was away.

Switch it on yesterday but it was not booting. The message on the screen is " No bootable device--insert boot disk "

It is Toshiba satelite L300 on window vista

I put in the recovery disk but it then prompt me that i am about to lose everything. I stopped and then remove the CD.

What can i do? I cant afford to lose my files

xs11ax

you could remove the hard drive and install into an external caddy (about 5 quid from ebay). and connect it to another pc then you can save all your files onto the pc then restore them back to your laptop once you sorted out the not booting issue.

prob be a more better techy way to fix this but thats all i can think of!

RaiderHammer

Not helping with this issue but make a note for the future. Always have a recent back up of any important files. I use an external hard drive, the portable type.

JasX

" No bootable device--insert boot disk "

Generally means your computer can't find a copy of windows to start up from, one of the following will be the case

1- your hard disk is fine but your laptop can't find it/is looking in the wrong place
a) make sure the CD drive is empty and all external USB drives and sticks are removed -try rebooting
b) go into BIOS (where it asks you to press del/F2/F8/etc to enter setup) and make sure your hard disk can be found and is somewhere sensible in the boot order)

2-the copy of windows on your hard disk is corrupt (drive can still be seen in BIOS)
a) take out the hard disk as above and recover your data
b) reinstall/repair windows

3-your hard disk is blank (drive can still be seen in BIOS)
a) reinstall/repair windows

4-your hard disk is damaged/broken (misssing from BIOS)
a) find and run some low level diagnostics and see if that repairs your hard disk -try reboooting
b) if you manage to repair your hard disk try the steps listed under 2, be sure to backup your data asap incase its on the way out
c) diagnostics may report your hard disk as terminally broken, will need to buy a new one take out the one you have to check weather its SATA or IDE, buy a replacement of the same type, ensure you'll want a SATA2 (check your laptop can cope, also calles SATA 300) 2.5 inch drive as big (several hundred GB), as fast (ideallly 7000 rpm+) and with as large a buffer size (16 or 32 MB) as you can afford.


I've suffered 4c before after dropping my laptop and killing my hard disk

Kaybenson

Cheers folks.

I entered setup via F". There's no hard drive listed.

What could have happened ?

GunJack

if you feel confident to do so (it's not hard), remove the HDD and re-seat it in it's drive bay. Then re-boot into BIOS and check it's there in the list.....