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My laptop's broken.

Centipede DamascusCentipede Damascus Registered User regular
edited October 2012 in Help / Advice Forum
So recently I dropped my laptop. Everything about it looks fine, but now it's giving me an error when I turn it on that says "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key". I took it apart and all the connections look fine, though. I think the hard drive disk might be damaged. Is it worth it to try taking it to a computer repair place? Am I going to have to just buy a new hard drive? And if I do, am I going to have to buy a new Windows install as well? Also, my laptop doesn't have a CD drive, so I'm not sure how I would go about installing Windows on a new hard drive.

If it helps, this is my laptop: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6798013&CatId=4938

Centipede Damascus on

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    KharnastusKharnastus Registered User regular
    edited October 2012
    Make sure hard drive is connected. Turn on computer, hit whatever key combination to get into the bios at startup such as f8 or f12, should tell you on startup. After you get into bios you need to make sure it is set to boot from your hard drive. It might not show up. If it doesn't, that's probably get new hard drive. If it does tell the bios to boot from it.
    Also make sure you don't have any USB drives attached such as USB thumb drives etc.
    Was the laptop on when you dropped it? If yes, good chance the hard drive was writing and was damaged in fall. If you decide that it's the hard drive that needs to be replaced, putting a windows boot file on a USB drive is pretty easy.

    Kharnastus on
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    Centipede DamascusCentipede Damascus Registered User regular
    Yeah, it was on when I dropped it. It worked for a few seconds afterward, but then rebooted and went to the error screen.

    It tells me it's set to boot from "Atheros Network Agent", and there don't seem to be any other options for booting.

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    TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    Yeah it sounds like it can't read your hard drive even a little bit. Borrow someone else's HD and try it in there - the laptop sees it, your HD is busted, otherwise something on the mobo that reads the HD is busted.

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    KharnastusKharnastus Registered User regular
    Hard drive is not recognized, most likely borked. Need a new one and USB boot disk for windows.

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    saltinesssaltiness Registered User regular
    My money's on the hard drive. I've had to replace the drive in my macbook twice because of dropping it.

    XBL: heavenkils
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