Fix "No Bootable Device" error on Acer laptop

Option 1: Set the drive as bootable

The first possible reason for the "No Bootable Device" error on Acer notebooks, and others as well, is that the BIOS does not know which device to boot from. This is usually caused by the following factors: hasty user actions, BIOS reset, one-time BIOS failure, or a dead battery on the motherboard.

With the above in mind, the following instruction can help you both completely and until the next laptop restart. So, if the fix was sufficient for a single successful startup of the laptop, be sure to contact Option 4. и Option 7. of this article, which explains what to do if the settings are not saved in the BIOS.

So first, you will have to open your BIOS settings. This can be done with the help of our separate manual.

More information: To enter the BIOS of your Acer notebook

1. Go to the tab "Boot"where in the section "Boot priority order" your hard drive must be installed first. At this point you may have some other device, for example a floppy drive or an external storage device (HDD, flash drive). By the way, when using an external storage device, which for some reason the notebook mistakenly thought was bootable, it is usually enough to disable it. However, if you need it permanently, change the boot settings in the BIOS.
2. Acer usually always has a prefix that lets you know exactly what is in each place - it helps to create the correct priority if you are not familiar with the names of the components. For example, the hard drive with the operating system should be labeled as "HDD" / "Laptop hard drive"and on very old laptops. "IDE0". The instructions on the right side of the window tell you how to swap the bootloaders: most of the time you have to select the desired one with the up and down arrows on the keyboard, press F6 several times to take a line and move it up a certain number of points.

If the hard drive is not visible in the BIOS, go to Option 7 of this material.

3. When you are ready, press the key. F10 to save the settings and exit the BIOS. Once clicked, a notification will appear to confirm your action - select the positive option ("Yes").

If there is something to change, it is more than likely that after editing this option the operating system will boot. Anyway, when the correct hard drive is in first place, don't be in a hurry to exit BIOS - there are a few more options there, which can affect booting of the operating system and should be checked.

Option 2: Change the SATA operating mode

Like the previous option, this one can be changed for exactly the same reasons. So all the theory outlined above fully fits this situation as well, and to find out if it is really about SATA mode of operation you can do the following:

1. Being in the BIOS, go to the option "Principal" (if your BIOS version doesn't edit this tab at all and the option you're looking for isn't there, look in the other tabs, usually the "Advanced") and find the element there "SATA mode" (in other tabs it can also be called "SATA Configuration". or as close to this value as possible). All modern laptops should have the option "AHCI".Advanced laptops with multiple disk drives can use "Optane without RAID". In very old laptops there is even a connection "SDI" - You should probably find this out through an internet search for information about your laptop model.

   Also read:What is SATA mode in BIOS?

2. If the set mode does not match yours (as already mentioned, it is almost always "AHCI".), click the item with the I went into and fix it yourself. Remember the mode that was originally set if you are not sure what you are doing. If so, you may need to reset it to defaults as there are more solutions that can be applied, and the wrong SATA mode will prevent the system from booting even if the problem is fixed.
3. Clave F10 and an option "Yes". In the dialog box, save your changes and exit BIOS.

If that doesn't work, try installing other options available in the BIOS.

Option 3: Change the Boot Mode value

Like the first two options, the option "Boot mode" it can also be confused, changed. Determines the boot mode, and its value must match the installed operating system and the style of the hard drive partition.

1. Find "Boot mode" can be found in the tab "Boot".. The required element is named like this. As a general rule, laptops and older operating systems require the mode "Legacy"for the new ones. "UEFI".. When installing an old operating system on a relatively new laptop, you may also need "Legacy". Try changing the current value to another, and if that doesn't help, return to the mode as it was originally, or go straight to resetting the settings (the next option in the article).
2. Saving the changes and exiting the BIOS is the same as we mentioned before.

Option 4: Reset BIOS settings

Perhaps due to some BIOS malfunction, the edits made are resetting, or something else is causing the "No Bootable Device" error to appear. Restoring the original settings can help.

In BIOS, go to tab "Go out" / «Save & Exit» and select there "Load configuration defaults"When the dialog box appears, confirm your action with the button "Yes". Now exit the BIOS in the familiar way.

If suddenly the operating system still does not boot, go back to the BIOS and check the three settings that we have reviewed in Options 1 to 3.The hard drive has to be bootable, SATA and the boot mode has to be adjusted according to your configuration. In most cases, you don't need to do it yourself, as the notebook's BIOS is already reset to the correct settings by default.

Option 5: Restore the bootloader

A corrupted partition on the drive with the operating system boot loader also sometimes causes the "No Bootable Device" error. Its recovery is quite simple and is reduced to executing a couple of commands in Command Prompt.However, due to the inability to do this in your own Windows recovery environment, you will have to use a bootable flash drive with the same version and bit type of Windows that is currently installed but not bootable. Some users may have to find a suitable disk or flash drive from their friends, or use another computer to create one themselves. Below are a series of links with all the information necessary to create these boot devices, start the computer from them and directly restore the boot manager of the operating system - choose your version of Windows and click on its name.

Read More:
Creating a bootable flash drive or disk with Windows 10 / Windows 7
Configure the BIOS to boot from a flash drive or disk
Ways to restore Windows 10 / Windows 7 bootloader

Option 6: Check the status of your hard drive

Owners of laptops with a hard drive on which an operating system is installed may have to review and restore it if necessary. The nature of this device is such that after prolonged use or other events, so-called bad blocks may appear, from which the information cannot be read. If they are many and affect important system and boot files, it is hardly possible to start the operating system. Those who have an operating system installed on an SSD drive should skip this step, as this type of drive works on a completely different principle, which rules out the 'bad sector' phenomenon.

Similar to the bootloader recovery situation, you will need a bootable flash drive to perform the following steps. It can be of two types: with the operating system and with special software. Each of these options requires a different application approach and is not always interchangeable with the second. Therefore, we advise you to familiarize yourself with both methods and decide which one to use.

Method 1: bootable USB-flash with Windows

This method is the easiest to apply, since it involves working with the well-known "Command line". Windows. All you have to do is enter a single command to check for errors and correct them. However, the method has disadvantages: in case a user does not have a bootable USB stick, they will have to download a large-scale Windows image to create a bootable rescue media, and the tool built into the operating system will not always helps. However, if you already have a bootable removable disk with the operating system or are afraid to use third-party programs, nothing prevents you from trying to check the disk in an easier and more comfortable way. As a reminder, links to tutorials on creating and booting from a USB stick, as well as other additional information, are available at Option 5..

1. After booting from the flash drive and selecting a language, you will see a welcome screen asking you to install the operating system. Instead, press the key combination Shift + F10[F10] causing "Command line".. Scribe diskpart to start the utility with the same name and press I went into on the keyboard.
2. The next command to enter list volume. A list of volumes will be displayed from which you will need to determine the drive letter, as the recovery environment assigns all devices their own letters and these may be different from what you have seen in the running operating system. For example, in the screenshot below you can see that the system volume is Ccan have this D - You have to be guided by size. If you have two volumes of the same size, as demonstrated again in the image, you must understand that the system partition is always above the user volume (without OS), but below the drive and recovery partition.
3. Once you know the letter, type in the console exitThe diskpart utility has terminated.
4. Write in. chkdsk X: /F /Rsubstituting X calculated chart. The parameters that follow are responsible for finding and correcting errors on the selected drive.

Once the scan and correction is complete, you can restart your computer and remembering to disconnect the flash drive before turning on the PC again, check if the "No Bootable Device" error has disappeared.

Method 2: bootable USB-flash with third-party software

The chkdsk utility doesn't always fix the problems it finds, or doesn't detect what needs to be fixed. However, specialized software hard drive recovery can do it. If the first method does not help you or you do not want to download a Windows image, you can pick up a program for working with HDD, which has a version for the recovery environment (ISO file). It can be Victoria, MHDD or HDAT2. We will use the latter as an example.

Also read: Recovering a hard drive with Victoria

1. Download and create a bootable flash drive with the selected utility. Since this process varies everywhere, and somewhere (as in the case of HDAT2) it is not easy for beginners, you should find the instructions on the Internet suitable for the task of creating a bootable flash drive with the utility that you have. chosen one. For this reason, we will consider a ready-made collection with various utilities - Hiren's BootCD.

   Go to Hiren's BootCD Official Website

   You are free to choose any other counterpart that weighs less, such as the Ultimate Boot CD or something to your liking. These builds have multiple utilities at once, including the ones we list, so you can choose any one or even use them alternately. After deciding on the software, burn the collection to a flash drive. It's much easier to do: just follow the instructions in the link below.

   Read more: Guide to burn an ISO image to a flash drive

2. Boot from flash drive by changing BIOS settings (similar to Option 1. in this article, where the attached flash drive should be given first before entering BIOS) or immediately after turning on the notebook by pressing F2 / F8, with which the Boot Menu appears, where you can also specify from which device you are going to boot the computer this time.
3. You can only use the keyboard to control this application. Use the arrow keys to select and navigate to "Two programs".
4. This is where you want the article "Hard Disk Tools"When selected, various notifications will appear. Respond positively to all of them.
5. Now a list of hard drive utilities will be displayed. Pick the one you know, we'll stop at the first one.
6. HDAT2 will display the list of disks available for checking and reuse. Specify yours based on size (column "Capacity").
7. Deactivate the acoustic signal output when errors are detected by pressing the Latin letter P and moving the element "Sound". in the state "Disabled". Exit this subsection with the key Esc.
8. The next step is to select the operation you want to perform on the disk. We are interested in "Driving level tests menu".
9. Between tests, go to "Check and repair bad sectors".
10. Scanning and correction will start. Watch the progress bar in the middle of the window to see how long you have to wait. There is a line above it "Mistakes".The larger the unit, the longer the process. The larger the drive volume and the number of errors, the longer the entire process will take.
11. When the operation is finished, you can see how many bad sectors have been found ("Bad sectors") and how many of them could be fixed ("Repaired"). If there are many broken sectors, we can conclude that there is a serious problem with the hard drive and that it needs to be replaced. Now you can restart your computer and try to start it.

Read also: Checking the SMART hard drive

Option 7: Hardware check

If none of the above recommendations help, it is very likely that there is a physically faulty drive, or a dead battery on the motherboard. In the first case the errors of the unit cannot be fixed or it is not even visible in the BIOS, in the second case the settings in the BIOS are not saved permanently, restarting every time Acer is shut down. Both situations will require replacement and partial / complete disassembly of the laptop.

Disk drive problem.

Hard disk or solid state drive failures can occur for various reasons and require different interventions.

• The disk drive has been improperly seated, is improperly seated, or has come off due to a laptop being dropped or a strong jolt. Therefore, the drive may not even appear in BIOS as a mapped drive. In the case of older laptops, the bottom cover, which hides the main components for diagnosis and easy replacement, is quite easy to remove: just unscrew the screws and grab it with something thin. Some models have a separate hard drive removal cap, which makes testing the hard drive even easier. On newer models the covers are not usually removable in the same way: their edges can be on the side with the keyboard and are closer to the case, making it easy to damage the material and break it in the ports. Other options are also possible, it all depends on the specific model.
• Natural wear of the unit or failure of the unit. In very old notebooks, the hard drive can fail at any time, simply because it has exhausted its resources. Or the unit may fail due to defects (more relevant for new Acer notebooks), environmental influences: the user dropped the notebook, poured the liquid, was subjected to strong shocks and vibrations. To correct the failed hard drive itself does not work, to extract the information you can only turn to the professional service center, but it costs a lot of money. A new laptop has to go through the warranty for diagnosis or exchange. With the failure of SSD can also occur, but most likely due to marriage, unexpected failure or the same liquid - external factors, such as drops and vibrations that is not so scary, because, in contrast to the hard drive, drive solid state is the usual electronics.
• Other reasons. This category includes all things for which the unit may not be visible. Among them, incorrect BIOS settings or damage to other hardware. For more information on this topic, follow the links below.

Read More:
Laptop cannot see hard drive in BIOS
What to do if the BIOS does not see the SSD

If you have access to the drive, you can remove it and try connecting it to another computer - the notebook's hard drive form factor connects in exactly the same way via a SATA cable as its classic desktop version. On the other hand, 2,5 SSDs have basically no difference in their casings.

Motherboard battery problem

Mostly a dead battery on the motherboard doesn't make it asymptomatic. In addition to constantly seeing the BIOS reset, the system time may also be reset, the laptop may hang, have trouble turning on, and the sound from the microphone and headphones may start to stutter. Of course, not necessarily all these symptoms at once, but if a manual reset of the BIOS led to nothing, and you keep resetting your settings, you should take the laptop to the service center and have the battery replaced. If you can disassemble it yourself, you will only need to buy a normal round CR2032 "pill" battery. The principle of disassembly is described above in the section on disk problem. There you can see a photo with an example of one of Acer's laptops in which by removing the cover you can easily replace the battery.

Read also: Replacing the battery on the motherboard

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