Help- Computers

[C2 RIBS]

I switched on office system today to see a message
"No bootable device press any key to reset"

Pressing any key brings it back to the same and clearly the system is down. Ideas please before I call the engineers at 9am

[EnglishLes]

It probably means that it is not recognising the hard drive.

Do you have a back up systems disk on a CD/DVD? (You should create one of these every time you install new hardware/drivers.)

If so put this in your DVD drive and try again.

It could be just a loose connection inside the box. All the bits are connected by "ribbon" wires and plastic connectors. It might be worthwhile opening the case up and just giving all of these connectors a wiggle and push in.

Good Luck.

[boristhebold]

First thing to check is look to see if anyone has left a cd rom or dvd in the disk drive, some systems on start up look for a bootable drive which may include looking in that location. So make sure none present.

Then reboot, if problem still exists then it could be a number of things;

1. check cmos settings (usually something like F1 for set up when you power up or F10, depends upon what make of computer. Check hard disk is recognised and is set to boot from hard disk

if not recognised

2. check wiring connections to hard disk and check connections from hard disk to power supply and mother board, could be a loose cable

3. If still not working then could be a hard disk failure

[C2 RIBS]

And to really make my day, if a hard disc failure have I lost everything?

[Anchorhandler]

Originally Posted by C2 RIBS

And to really make my day, if a hard disc failure have I lost everything?

Morning Ian...

No not at all, even if the hard drive has suffered a catastrophic failure there are specialist companies out there that can work magic on them....

Simon

[thomas]

Highly unlikely the disk has failed, when you turn it on, apart form the fan spinning, can you hear the drive spool up? most likely to be a Windows or Bios fault.

[chris.moody]

If you accidentally leave a USB memory stick plugged in, some PC's try to boot up from that instead of the hard drive. Worth checking.

If the hard drive is dead I know a forensic data recovery specialist that I have used on a regular basis who is very good.

[Erin]

Depends whether the hard drive has stopped working or whether it has just got a corrupted boot sector. If the drive still spins up you could put it in another pc and just copy your data off it. The boot sector is repairable with the right CD based software.

[James Slatter]

You probably have it sorted now but like others suggest it could be a USB drive / cd / floppy disc left in the pc that's causing that message. if the hard drive is getting on in age they can stop spinning so a firm bang on the side of the pc can get them going again. Data is normally recoverable unless you are very unlucky.

If you still need help then give me a shout.

[C2 RIBS]

Always knew Ribnet had some clever people- Engineer has reset the system as it was trying to open in another field- yep I have no understanding. So reset and backed up again

Cheers all very much appreciated, thought I had lost everything