M17x R4, No boot device found, Do I need to replace the hard drive?

Question

Hi, I have this old laptop that was working ok a few years ago but it stopped working because of this error, I need to use it now and I was wondering if I need to replace the hard drive?

I already tried changing the boot system from legacy to UEFI and that isn't working. Any suggestions?

mattyb3 · Accepted Answer

If you just want to use a single brand new 2.5" Sata SSD then it's pretty simple, relatively speaking. Setting up RAID is a little more complicated. If you've had Windows 10 loaded on the laptop before then you should be able to do the following and get an activated version of Windows 10.

UEFI is the better way to go because it will allow you to upgrade your GPU to a 900 series.

To reinstall Windows from scratch you will first need an 8gb Flash drive. Use the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to download a Windows ISO image onto the flash drive and keep aside for later.

It's best to remove all the old drives before continuing so there aren't any weird issues.

1. Make sure the BIOS is set to AHCI

2. Change the boot mode to UEFI, Set Load Legacy ROM to Disabled, Set Windows Secure Boot to Disabled.

3. Save and Exit and shutdown the laptop

4. Install the 2.5" SSD and insert the flash drive

5. Boot the laptop and press F12 to get into the boot menu. Select the USB

6. The Windows installer will start and you will get to a screen where you select the disk to install Windows on. Select your new SSD.

7. Windows will now complete its installation and this new SSD should be set as the primary boot drive.

You should now be able to put one of your old HDD's back in and then you can use Disk Management in Windows to format it and use it for storage.

maplejvl · Answer

And please ignore the failed battery, I'm planning on keeping it plugged in and not moving it around.

JOcean · Answer

From what I see, the hard drive has failed and the system is trying to boot from a network device. To be sure run diagnostics (tap F12 immediately at boot) and watch for drive errors. And assuming the drive has failed (a Seagate 500 GB 7200 RPM HDD), it would be a good time to replace it with an SSD. If you get lucky you may be able to grab the data from the drive using an adapter or docking station.

ejn63 · Answer

It looks like one of a pair of drives failed - -in RAID 0, so while you could replace just one and rebuild, replacing both (or replacing both with a single, native SSD as recommended) is a much better idea.

Particularly given the manufacturer's reputation, if one drive has failed, the other won't be far behind it.

JOcean · Answer

Not necessarily. If in fact it is RAID 0 and 1 drive passed it could mean the second drive is not even found and you are back where you started. I agree with @ejn63 , buy a single drive SSD preferably, and replace both drives with a single larger drive. With hard  drives there are 2 types. Those that have failed and those that are going to fail. It is the nature of a mechanical drive.

maplejvl · Answer

I'm not sure if it's a hard drive error, there seem to be no problems in the diagnostics.

maplejvl · Answer

Hi Crimsom, this laptop is quite old so it's still using a regular HDD. I was thinking of upgrading to SSDs anyway since it's that old. When I tried using a recovery and restore USB, it still didn't work and forced me to restart without actually repairing the OS.

maplejvl · Answer

Oh ok, so when you say buying a single drive SSD? The laptop comes with two hard drives so should I just replace both of them with SSDs? Thanks for the help!

maplejvl · Answer

Thanks, I don't need any of the data stored on the hard drive, I was looking on amazon for SSDs so would I need to purchase two of them? And what would be the best way to reinstall windows? I have a USB set up to dell restore and recover, could I use that?

ejn63 · Answer

First (or only) 2.5' SATA SSD should go in slot 0.  Bear in mind you may need a spacer to install an SSD -- the drive bay is very likely designed for a 9.5 mm drive, where the SSD will be 5 or 7 mm in height.

mattyb3 · Answer

I was about to say that the shape of your LCD was an M17x R3 or R4 and if you have the option to swap to UEFI it means you have the R4. You have no NVMe support unless you get a special adapter. You have 3 storage slots in your laptop. You have two 2.5" Sata bays and also an mSata slot. The mSata slot was originally used as a cache drive for a larger mechanical HDD as SSD's were quite expensive back in 2012. They would use a small 32/64gb mSata SSD and use Intel RST to accelerate the HDD. Just check to see if your laptop has one of these mSata's installed. It should show up in the BIOS with your other drives.

It doesn't matter what 2.5" bay you put your C: drive in. You just go into the BIOS and set your boot order for whichever drive you want to use. If you don't want to run your drives in RAID then make sure the BIOS is set to AHCI under the Advanced tab. If your system is set up in the BIOS wrong then you can get a Boot device not found error even if the drives are working properly. Also, switching from Legacy to pure UEFI usually means that you have to change the partition type of the drive from MBR to GPT using diskpart in Command Prompt and reinstalling Windows or the OS will not load.

maplejvl · Answer

Hi @crimsom @ejn63 , I got it mixed up, it is the M17x R4. In that case, since there are two hard drives, would I replace the one in module 1 or 0? I would attach a picture but I don't have permission.

ejn63 · Answer

When one drive of a RAID 0 array fails, the entire contents of both drives is lost -- there literally is nothing left to repair.

While you could break the array and reload Windows to the other drive, that's risky -- if one of the pair has expired, it's probable the other one will soon.

The other issue is that you've called this an m17 R3 -- that's a 2020 model. Is this a 17 R3 (no -m) from 2015? Or the even older m17x model from 2011?

maplejvl · Answer

So the plan is to replace the hard drives with an SSD and then reinstalling windows? What other settings should I use, legacy to UEFI? This is a lot to take in lol.

maplejvl · Answer

Ok, that sounds good, I'll just get a 250gb SSD for now and use that. I probably won't reuse one of the old hard drives as they're basically 10 years old at this point.

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M17x R4, No boot device found, Do I need to replace the hard drive?

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