Boot Device Not Found Please Intall an Operating system on your hard disk. Hard Disk - (3F0)

Question

Hello,
I tried to re-install de OS from windows 7 to windows 8.1 and when the bios update driever was installed and the laptop was restaring it appeared the folowing window and message:
Boot Device Not Found Please Intall an Operating system on your hard disk. Hard Disk - (3F0)
After that i tried a lot of different ways to get to boot device select ...but i couldn't do anything. I removed the HDD and i put it back, i've tried with holding in the same time windows +B and pressing the power button in the same time for 1..2 seconds and then i've waited for at least 1 minute..and it didn't appeared anything on the screen. I've done the hard drive check and it passed. The weirdest thing is that when i want to select a boot device to re-install again the OS, i can't see any boot device to select. I need to mention that i've formatted the HDD in another computer. I dont care about the informations from the HDD beacause i saved all the informations on another device storage.
Please help me repair this problem!!!  thanks a lot!
Have a nice evening.!!!

Answer 1

Whenever you get a message stating that the boot device not found it could be because of bad sectors on the Hard Drive. Its not necessary that the Hard Drive Test should fail to determine if the Hard Drive if its faulty or not. Sometimes even if the Hard Drive Test passes the Hard Drive will still not work because of the bad sectors in it.
Best way to find out if its the Hard Drive you can try the Hard Deive on a different Notebook which would help you determine if it's faulty or not.
Could be due to Application or driver conflicts, virus issues, file corruptions due to incompatible applications, improper shutdowns, update failures due to conflicts, sudden power surges, if notebook is dropped etc..
HP will provide a replacement Hard Disk Drive if the Notebook warranty is Active, If not you need buy a SATA Hard Disk Drive from a retail shop nearby
Please make sure you are getting at least equal capacity as the original one in order to use Recovery Disks. If you need you can buy a larger, but not smaller capacity Hard Disk Drive. For example if you have a 500GB Hard Disk Drive you can upgrade it to 750GB Hard Disk Drive but not 320GB Hard Disk Drive
Please try the below shown troubleshooting steps once:
Step 01. Remove the battery and unplug the AC/Power Adapter
Step 02. Press and hold the Power button for more than 30 Seconds
Step 03. Plug in the AC/Power Adapter (leave the Battery out for now)
Step 04. Press the Power button and check if the Unit works normal
If the above mentioned steps does not help, then you can try reseating the Hard Drive on your Notebook
If the issue persists again please Contact HP if your HP Notebook is under warranty, HP would replace the Hard Disk Drive and provide you a Recovery media to restore factory operating system after replacement (if you've not yet created Recovery Discs/USB Media)
Note: Back up all the personal data to an external drive if it's possible. Otherwise you could connect the failed HDD via SATA to USB adapter with another PC or same PC after replacement of HDD & re-installation of OS and try copying /recovering the files.
Please click on the link In order to Identify, Prevent, Diagnose & Recover from Drive Failures on HP Notebook Hard Drives & Solid State Drives :
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02876562.pdf
Please check your notebook warranty to verify the status and order a new Hard Disk Drive
Hope this helps, for any further queries reply to the post and feel free to join us again
**Click the KUDOS star on left to say Thanks**
Make it easier for other people to find solutions by marking a Reply 'Accept as Solution' if it solves your problem.
Thank You,
K N R K
Although I am an HP employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP