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No Bootable Device-Bricked Acer Laptop

2216 Views 12 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  managed, 
D
Hello all,

This will be my first post on this forum. Having said that, please forgive any bluntness, ignorance, or failure to conform with community protocol.

So, first of all, this whole conundrum was caused by my inability to control my curiosity- I bought a 17"Acer Predator a few months back. It functioned flawlessly however upon startup I always got a message from IRST (Intel Rapid Storage Technology) prompting me to initiate a procedure that would "free up space" on my drives.

After finally clicking yes yesterday, IRST started a "migrating" process in order to create a new RAID volume/ sync my drives in parallel? It took about an hour (with no option to cancel once initiated), then upon completion, I could no longer see or access my 1TB SSD (D: Drive). I freaked out and after doing some research online, this loophole seemed to be a common problem on Dell and Acer laptops from this stupid Intel App. (Or stupid users like me who don't always know what they're getting into).

I tried to change/revert back through the intel app as well as windows disk management to no avail. There was no options to change anything back even as Administrator.

Interestingly enough I found a rather exact solution on this forum to restore my D: drive (1TB Samsung SSD). The post I referenced is here:

https://forums.techguy.org/threads/solved-hard-drive-partition-has-disappeared.903126/

I downloaded TestDisk and began down the trail of DOS investigation. I uncovered a missing partition and restored it to "P" as per the directions. Once all of the Drives were highlighted green after assigning the type, I proceeded to write the disk(s). Now, because the images on this old post were not displayed due to photobucket's updated 3rd party policy, I had only the description of what forum member Jerry said (could not view the screenshots he referenced). In a haphazard blunder, it appears I changed all of the drives to type "P", without leaving a primary boot drive indicated by the asterisk (*) prefix. Now after writing this to disks, my laptop is bricked upon startup and only displays "No Bootable Device" in big white letters with a black background.

Now I have dug myself into an even deeper hole rendering my newly acquired $2000 Laptop completely and utterly useless-I'm literally nauseated with frustration and anxiety. I have tried changing every BIOS option under the sun, only to no avail. Factory reset/default options make no difference either. After searching, it appears the next logical step to remedy my stupidity is to acquire a windows 10 boot USB or boot CD in order to re-install/repair the missing files/partitions. However, before I go down this road and risk a potentially worse situation, I would be very appreciative of any and all advice before I proceed. Or maybe there's something else I can do without re-install? Thank you so much for any and all help ahead of time...I've really gotten myself into a bind here and would prefer to hear the recommended course of action from someone who actually knows (rather than drop my laptop off with the clowns at GeekSquad and risk losing all my data).

Thanks for taking the time to read, if you need more info from me please let me know and I will get back to you in a semi-prompt manor. I am using my work computer to type this and have my cell for e-mail notifications.

-Daniel VanSchaik (dvsdanny6)
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managed
You can run TestDisk from a bootable CD. You can then use it to make the Windows System partition (usually the first partition) active/bootable which might be all you need to do.

This is the CD I would use, the top one here :- https://www.tystechtalk.com/downloads/
Burn it to a CD, you can use ImageBurn for that, it's free :- https://www.techspot.com/downloads/3285-imgburn.html
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managed said:
You can run TestDisk from a bootable CD. You can then use it to make the Windows System partition (usually the first partition) active/bootable which might be all you need to do.

This is the CD I would use, the top one here :- https://www.tystechtalk.com/downloads/
Burn it to a CD, you can use ImageBurn for that, it's free :- https://www.techspot.com/downloads/3285-imgburn.html
Click to expand...
Hi Allan,

Thank you for the prudent response. I will burn the files to CD/DVD today on my work computer from the link you provided. I will make sure the CD ROM is selected as primary boot device under the bios menu.

Will update with progress later today.

Thank you,

Daniel VanSchaik
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managed said:
You can run TestDisk from a bootable CD. You can then use it to make the Windows System partition (usually the first partition) active/bootable which might be all you need to do.

This is the CD I would use, the top one here :- https://www.tystechtalk.com/downloads/
Burn it to a CD, you can use ImageBurn for that, it's free :- https://www.techspot.com/downloads/3285-imgburn.html
Click to expand...
So I stayed after hours at work, followed the links, installed IMG burn, burned the boot file download from the website to the DVD and verified it after burn. After I got back home I set my USB CD ROM (There's no internal CD ROM player in the laptop due to an extra cooling fan incorporated into the design) as primary boot device on the BIOS menu, I inserted the disk and restarted several times without any success. Anyway, I Still get "No Bootable Device". I guess the next best thing is to try and repair it with a Windows boot CD? Or am I missing something?

Thanks,

Daniel
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managed
Assuming you have one let's try a Usb stick.

Go here and scroll down to Step C to make a bootable Usb stick :-
http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/Installing-SystemRescueCd-on-a-USB-stick/
Before clicking the Install button click the Extract Files button and let it finish !

You may have to go into the Bios and make USB the first boot device.

Boot to the USB stick and use the arrow keys to select '6) SystemRescueCd: directly start the graphical environment'
You'll see a lot of scrolling text then a desktop, click on the Start button at bottom left (looks like a CD) > System > TestDisk
In TestDisk tap Enter until you get to the screen where you can alter partition type
Make the first partition bootable (*)
Continue and Write the change onto the HDD

Reboot and hopefully it will go into Windows now.
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dvsdanny6 said:
So I stayed after hours at work, followed the links, installed IMG burn, burned the boot file download from the website to the DVD and verified it after burn. After I got back home I set my USB CD ROM (There's no internal CD ROM player in the laptop due to an extra cooling fan incorporated into the design) as primary boot device on the BIOS menu, I inserted the disk and restarted several times without any success. Anyway, I Still get "No Bootable Device". I guess the next best thing is to try and repair it with a Windows boot CD? Or am I missing something?

Thanks,

Daniel
Click to expand...
I have changed the first boot device to USB, i guess it would have been easy to restart at first, but I was wrong . i have tried some times , can not boot my computer ,
As you said,if i try and repair it with a Windows boot CD , do i need to chanage the first boot device to CD ?
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managed
@Lamserh To get better help with your problem please start a new Thread. (It's confusing if 2 people post their problems in the same thread).
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managed said:
Assuming you have one let's try a Usb stick.

Go here and scroll down to Step C to make a bootable Usb stick :-
http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/Installing-SystemRescueCd-on-a-USB-stick/
Before clicking the Install button click the Extract Files button and let it finish !

You may have to go into the Bios and make USB the first boot device.

Boot to the USB stick and use the arrow keys to select '6) SystemRescueCd: directly start the graphical environment'
You'll see a lot of scrolling text then a desktop, click on the Start button at bottom left (looks like a CD) > System > TestDisk
In TestDisk tap Enter until you get to the screen where you can alter partition type
Make the first partition bootable (*)
Continue and Write the change onto the HDD

Reboot and hopefully it will go into Windows now.
Click to expand...
Allan,

I installed the rescue program onto the USB drive successfully. After disabling secure boot, I also booted the program successfully. After successfully entering start graphical environment, I get the scrolling and a glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, I have been brick walled by an error…the program is unable to connect to some "X.org" server. It will not let me proceed until it can establish an Ethernet connection of some type. Not really sure why it needs connectivity in the first place to do a rescue boot! Anyway, I have attached an image of the error. I have tried configuring my wifi connection manually to no avail. I guess the next step is to bring it in to work and plug an Ethernet cable directly into it to bypass all this other nonsense about connecting to a network to access a server. Then, taking it to a computer guy if that doesn't work.

Anyway thanks for your help so far, if you have any possible solutions please let me know.

Thanks,

Daniel

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managed
Get to the same screen in your picture and type startx then press Enter, it should go to a Desktop where you can click on Start (bottom left looks like a CD) > System > Testdisk

Xorg is part of the operating system, if it can't connect to it that means it can't display any graphics including the desktop (it doesn't mean you have to have an ethernet connection).
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managed
I found what should be an easier way to get Testdisk running. Follow the steps in post #2 at the link below, it should be at the top of the screen already.
I used the portable version of Rufus.
Also I would scroll down and get the 7.0 version of Testdisk.
I tried these steps and they worked for me.

https://www.sevenforums.com/backup-...ncludes-testdisk-post3070044.html#post3070044
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managed said:
Get to the same screen in your picture and type startx then press Enter, it should go to a Desktop where you can click on Start (bottom left looks like a CD) > System > Testdisk

Xorg is part of the operating system, if it can't connect to it that means it can't display any graphics including the desktop (it doesn't mean you have to have an ethernet connection).
Click to expand...
That was the first thing I tried. This is the expanded error message I get...

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managed said:
I found what should be an easier way to get Testdisk running. Follow the steps in post #2 at the link below, it should be at the top of the screen already.
I used the portable version of Rufus.
Also I would scroll down and get the 7.0 version of Testdisk.
I tried these steps and they worked for me.

https://www.sevenforums.com/backup-...ncludes-testdisk-post3070044.html#post3070044
Click to expand...
Thank you. I will try this today.
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managed
I found a nice tutorial on TestDisk here :- http://us.informatiweb.net/troubles...disk-recover-a-deleted-or-lost-partition.html

You will probably have to change the first partition to 'bootable' by using the left/right arrow keys until it shows an asterisk * at far left. Then Write the new info to the drive and reboot the computer.
It's explained quite well at the link, I would read it all before trying it, if you aren't clear on something let me know.
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