How-To Geek

I have a two year old dell windows 7 laptop that is displaying the following message on a black screen: internal hard disk drive not found. To resolve this, try to reset the drive.
No bootable devices--strike f1 to retry boot, f2 for setup utility
Press f5 to run inboard diagnostics.

I came on here and read a previous thread on the se issue and the suggestion was to remove the hard drive and put it back in. I did that but I got the same screen. I also ran the onboard diagnostics without any issues meaning all tests passed but I'm getting the same message.

If anyone can help please reply to this thread. Thank you!!

This sounds like head crash. Head crash is permanent and unfortunately about the worst thing that can occur. While there are other possibilities; low voltage, failure of controller circuitry, and may possibly (hopefully) only a loose connection. I would start by looking at the bios settings an take note of how(if) the HD is found. Turn off the machine, open the case and unplug the HD and reconnect, this would be a best case sceanario.
Hope this helps

Thanks for replying. Most of my data is out on Dropbox so I should be okay. I did have a few things on my desktop that were important. What is the best way for me to transfer it over to a different computer?

Yes mostly everything is backed up. Thank goodness!!

Will try that. Thank you!

Going to buy a new laptop after all. My son got a hold of the dell and popped off the keys on the keyboard. :(. He is only one so shame on me for leaving it out in his reach. Any recommendations???

Haven't done it before. My budget is not to exceed $800. Need it mainly for work and personal use. I run a business and have a family so it needs to satisfy both. Mainly, we use it for email, online media like Facebook etc...and business purposes like excel, word doc, and pdf files. I guess just a pretty basic machine that will last longer than my dell. thanks!!

No gaming. All gaming is done on an Xbox. Not sure which model I have. I'm away from it now. It has a pink colored top on it if that helps. I am considering another dell as I know they are pretty good in most cases.

Didn't think so. :).

I like the dell Inspiron 5520. It seems to have everything we need. I currently have the dell Inspiron 1545. Thoughts?