Don’t Panic If Your Computer Can’t Find The Hard Drive! You Need To Know These Causes And How To Fix Them
A few days ago, I was using the computer to prepare a very important report. However, the computer suddenly became stuck. After a forced restart, a line of text popped up on the screen: "No startup device detected."
At that moment, I was shocked. I originally thought that the hard drive had reached the end of its life, but after a lot of trouble, I discovered that the SATA cable was loose.
Things like this are quite common. Many people have problems with their computers. Their first reaction is that the hard drive is broken and the data is almost gone. They are extremely anxious.
In fact, the reasons behind the computer's "cannot find hard disk" situation are more complicated than we imagined. There may be problems with BIOS settings, maybe the drive letter is not assigned, or it may just be a loose interface.
Today, I am going to sort out several typical situations that I have encountered and that I have solved for others. I will start with the simplest ones and then the most complicated ones. I will teach you step by step to study, analyze and repair them, so that the next time you encounter them, you can start to do it yourself and feel confident.
Scenario 1: The screen goes black immediately after booting, and it cannot be seen in the BIOS.
This situation is the scariest.
After the computer is powered on, the screen is dark, or it is stuck on the brand logo interface. After entering the BIOS by pressing the Delete key or the F2 key (the corresponding keys are different for different motherboards), you can see that the list of boot devices is empty, and your hard drive cannot be found at all.
Generally speaking, this means that there is a "physical connection" problem or a "basic identification" problem between the motherboard and the hard disk.
First of all, be sure to stay calm, turn off the power of the computer (if it is a desktop computer, remember to unplug the power cord), and then open the side panel of the chassis.
Check the connection to the hard drive SATA data cable and power cord Is it plugged in tightly?
You can try plugging and unplugging again, or try changing the SATA interface on the motherboard.
For those who use M.2 NVMe SSD, check to see if it is inserted into the M.2 slot of the motherboard and secure it properly with screws.
Sometimes, just golden finger Poor contact will result in unrecognizability.
If re-plugging has no effect, there is a very practical way to eliminate it: remove the hard disk and install it on another computer that can run normally (it can be connected through the hard disk box as a mobile hard disk).
If another computer can recognize it normally, then it is basically certain that the problem exists in the motherboard, interface or BIOS settings of the computer you originally used.
Some older motherboards have the possibility that when identifying NVMe hard drives, they may have to be updated to the latest version before they have permission to support it. For BIOS, in this case, you can go to the official website of the motherboard to search.
Scenario 2: The disk cannot be found after entering the system, but it is available in the disk management
The computer can be turned on normally and enter the Windows system. However, in "This Computer", the drive letter of the hard disk cannot be found anyway, such as the D drive and E drive disappearing.
Don't panic at this time. It is very likely that the hard disk has been recognized by the system, but it has not been assigned a drive letter, or there may be something wrong with the partition table of the hard disk.
To solve this problem, we need to use the "Disk Management" tool that comes with the system.
Press and hold the Win key on the keyboard and the R key adjacent to it, enter the character combination diskmgmt.msc in the pop-up window called "Run" and press the Enter key.
After opening Disk Management, look carefully at the lower half of the graphical interface.
If you can find a disk that appears in "Unallocated" or "RAW" format, and the capacity of this disk exactly matches your lost hard drive, then the problem will be solved.
Use the right mouse button to click on the area shown as "Unallocated", select the "New Simple Volume" option, and then follow the steps given by the wizard step by step to assign a drive letter to it (for example, plan it as E:) and format it. After all is completed, return to the "This PC" interface to see it.
If the "RAW" format appears, or the status of the partition is abnormal, this is a sign that the partition table is damaged, and the data in it may be at risk.
At this time, it is recommended not to perform any further writing operations. You can try to use professional partition recovery software (such as the "Recover Partition" function of AOMEI Partition Assistant mentioned in the previous article) to try to repair it, or directly read the data.
Scenario 3: There is no response at all when the mobile hard disk/U disk is plugged in
Insert the mobile hard disk or U disk into the USB interface of the computer. The computer does not make any beeps at all, and there is no trace of it in "This Computer" or "Disk Management".
This is really frustrating, and it could be a lack of power, a problem with the connector, a problem with the driver, or the device itself is damaged.
First, try to replace a USB interface. Especially for desktop computers, you should first plug it into the interface on the motherboard itself on the back of the chassis, because the power supply of these interfaces will be more stable.
If the mobile hard disk has an additional power supply interface, like the one with a Y-shaped cable, be sure to plug in both USB heads to ensure sufficient power supply.
If changing the interface has no effect, you can right-click "This PC", select "Manage", and then enter "Device Manager".
Expand "Universal Serial Bus Controller" and look for a device with the words "USB Mass Storage Device". If it does exist but has a yellow exclamation mark, right-click and select "Update Driver".
Or, you can try to right-click the computer name at the top level, and then select the "Scan for hardware changes" option to let the system identify it again.
Pay attention to the reminder: If there is extremely critical data in the mobile hard disk, be sure to avoid repeated and rough plugging and unplugging during the troubleshooting process.
Once you hear an abnormal sound like "click-click" coming from inside the hard drive, you should cut off the power supply immediately. This is most likely due to physical damage to the magnetic head or motor, and you need to seek professional data recovery services.
Scenario 4: Prompt that the boot device cannot be found, but the hard disk is good
When the computer is turned on, a message such as "No bootable device" indicating that there is no bootable device, or a message such as "Boot Device Not Found" indicating that no bootable device was found is clearly displayed on the screen. However, you can use the BIOS to confirm that the hard disk itself is recognized.
This generally indicates that the system's boot record has been damaged, or that the BIOS boot sequence has been set incorrectly.
First, restart the computer until you enter the BIOS. This usually requires pressing the Delete, F2 or F1 keys, and then look for "Boot", which is the startup option, or "Startup", which is the startup option. Then check "Boot Priority", which is the startup priority, or "Boot Order", which is the startup sequence. Make sure that your system hard disk, usually the option with the words Windows Boot Manager, is ranked first.
If the boot sequence is correct, but the problem still exists, you can try changing the hard disk mode from AHCI to IDE mode (or vice versa) in the SATA settings of the BIOS.
This setting must be consistent with the mode during system installation. You may be able to temporarily enter the system after changing it.
If neither of the above two steps works, you need to repair the system boot.
you need to prepare one Windows system installation USB flash drive .
Use it to turn on the computer, click "Next" after selecting the language, and then select "Repair Computer" in the lower left corner.
Then, select "Troubleshoot" one by one, then select "Advanced Options", and finally select "Command Prompt".
In the already opened window that looks like a black box and is called the command prompt, type the corresponding content in sequence and execute the following three commands. After each command is typed, immediately press the Enter key.
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /rebuildbcd
Article 2 /fixmbr will fix the tradition MBR Boot record.
The third article /rebuildbcd is to rebuild modern BCD Boot configuration data.
After the execution is completed, pull out the USB flash drive and restart the computer. You will most likely be able to enter the system normally.
The core of cores: Develop a good habit of backing up
For the majority of "hard drive missing" situations caused by soft failures, the corresponding methods taught above can basically solve the problem easily.
However, we should be clearly aware that hard drives are consumables and carry the ultimate risk of physical damage.
when magnetic head impact disc, circuit board When it's burned, any software repair tricks are in vain.
Once the photos, documents, and work materials inside are lost, the loss may be irreparable.
Therefore, no matter how healthy your current hard drive looks, backing it up regularly is a good habit that you must cultivate and develop in the digital age.
For individual users, the simplest and most effective method is to use Automatic backup software .
Take AOMEI Backup, which is used by many people, as an example. Then you can set up a "disk backup" task, then select the backup destination on another mobile hard drive or NAS, and finally set it to be automatically executed on a weekly or monthly basis.
Once the entire process is set up for the first time, there is no need to worry about it in the future. The software will quietly protect your data in the background.
