"Reboot and select proper or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"

Woofsta

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Hello everyone,

Just recently my Asus laptop started presenting the "Reboot and select proper or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key" problem which I cannot boot up into windows anymore. I've followed some advice of seeing if my ssd is the boot option and trying to restore defaults, yet nothing works. I have an Asus UX31E with a Sandisk SSD and no modifications done to this laptop. In my Bios, the SSD is still recognized although that is the only boot option i have, since there are no CD drives or anything else. Is there a way to correct this problem or is my SSD fried?

Thanks in Advance
 

garrett1986

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could be couple things. simplest way to check is to try a different SSD/HDD to troubleshoot.

A: your windows installation/boot loader/partition table got corrupted somehow (reinstall windows)

B: your SSD is failing and corrupting your windows installation/boot loader/partition table (can test by reinstalling windows and doing a couple of large file transfers and using SSD Life to check that status of your SSD)

C: bad ram can cause this too (if it has multiple sticks of ram, try one at a time with all the others removed to test)

D: unlikely but possibly your motherboard (specifically the SB) could be failing and is not correctly interfacing with your SSD

E: SSD got knocked loose possibly (try re-seating it)
 

Woofsta

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Hi Garrett, sadly I cannot test the ram, since the ram itself is soldered into my laptop which i cannot remove. I will try to look into seeing if my SSD is knocked loose. As for your solutions from reinstalling windows, I did not create a backup windows copy anywhere so I am not sure how I can reinstall. Is there a place where I can download windows 7 onto a USB drive? If you can kindly guide me through that process to reinstalling windows, it will be appreciated.

Thanks.
 

garrett1986

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if you have access to another PC (library can work wonders), a valid windows 7 key (probably on a sticker on the bottom of your laptop) and an 8gb or larger usb drive you download whats called an ISO (basically its a CD/DVD in a single file that you can store on a hard drive) here

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

then you can either burn the ISO onto a DVD with a blank DVD

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/burn-a-cd-or-dvd-from-an-iso-file

or you can use a tool from Microsoft to copy the ISO to a USB drive (must be 8gb or larger)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool

once you have a DVD or USB drive with the ISO on it you simply insert either into your laptop, turn it on and press the select boot device key

usually its del, escape, f12, f8, f10, or some other key. if it doesn't say "press "del/f12 est" to select boot device" on the bios splash screen (the first text that pops up when you start your PC) disable quick boot in the bios and it should then display the prompt when you first turn your laptop on.

or go into the bios and set the boot device order so that the DVD drive/USB drive is the first boot device and restart your PC. it may ask you to "press any key to boot from DVD/USB" so press any key if it does.

if it works it should bring up a "windows loading" screen for a minute or two and then it will start the windows installation process.

its pretty straightforward just take your time to read everything on the screen.

make sure to select the version that you had before so your CD key works properly (IE professional/enterprise/home est), this should be listed next to the CD key on the sticker.

make sure to select your SSD (should be the largest drive available) as the location for windows to install, to simply reinstall windows without deleting your old data.

it will move your old user data to a folder on the C drive called "windows.old" and you would have to navigate through

C:\windows.old->users->(your old user name)

and that will contain all your old documents, saved games est that you saved under like "my documents" for example. otherwise it wont delete or remove anything on the drive.


this video explains how to reinstall without formatting the old drive. for reference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM_ePgOR4wo


IF windows setup cannot see the SSD in the install process you will have to replace it with another drive to begin troubleshooting the hardware, which basically means if a different HDD/SSD drive works and doesn't cause trouble later its probably your SSD.

this is what a "clean" installation looks like (formatting a new drive for windows)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mME9VLT7-xw
 

Woofsta

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Hello Garrett,

unfortunately it says I cannot download the windows ISO file, even though I provided my windows product key. This was due to not being a windows retail product key (my product key came with the laptop) So the access was denied. I've searched the web but was not able to find a way to download the ISO. Do you know of any sites that still lets you download Windows 7 home premium 64x ISO? Thanks
 

Woofsta

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Ok, so I was able to get the Iso and bootable USB to work, but when i was trying to either repair or reformat windows 7, it gives me this message.
"No device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click OK."


 

Woofsta

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hi ffg7, I used a Veratim 32GB usb drive to do the windows 7 installation on it. Im not too sure what you mean by download the windows 7 ssd driver onto a usb stick from sandisk. Does mine not work?

So I reformatted the USB stick and reinstalled the windows 7 onto the stick and was able to get past the "No device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click OK." Now i bumped into another problem where it showed this message when it was asking me where to install windows.

"Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition."
"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu"

Now my SSD drive that was in my laptop is shown as Disk 0 Unallocated Space - Total Size 198.2 GB - Free Space 198 GB

The Bios configuration for my SATA was already set to AHCI beforehand so I'm still not sure what is going on here.
 

ffg7

Splendid
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some windows 7 versions have to have 3rd party's ssd driver installed for windows to be installed on it in your case sandisk driver. have to allocate the drive by making a partition whether full size or partial as in 2 partitions. regular mechanical drives have to be done like that plus formatted before windows starts installing onto the drive. recovery disks do that automatically which is why you don't see that step.
 

Woofsta

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Hey ffg7, I did go through the instructions where it told me to install the SATA drivers by contacting the PC manufacturer.

9. If the drive is NOT recognize you may need install SATA drivers provided by PC manufacturer or by the SATA card controller manufacturer

I contacted Asus and this is what they told me.

"Unfortunately,I am afraid to say that ASUS have no SSD driver.

In theory, OS would auto recognize SSD if there is no compatibility or hardware problem.
We have not test sandisk u100 128gb SSD before. So, cannot guarantee whether there have compatibility problem between sandisk u100 and UX31E.

Below is the original SSD specification of this UX31E.
SANDISK/SDSA5JK-128G F10.01.02"

I don't know how else i could get the SSD driver.

I do want to mention that it does show the disk 0 unallocated space within that window. Is it possible that the motherboard is fried?
 

ffg7

Splendid
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have to allocate the drive by making a partition whether full size or partial as in 2 partitions. regular mechanical drives have to be done like that plus formatted before windows starts installing onto the drive. recovery disks do that automatically which is why you don't see that step.
 

Woofsta

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So reading through that, it tells me these steps"


Advanced User Method (manual update):

1) Switch on your laptop or computer then login as an administrator.

2) Then click the Get started button then click on Programs, Accessories, System Tools, after which click System Restore.

3) In the next screen, select “Restore my personal computer to an earlier time” and then click Next.

4) Choose the most current restore point from the “click a restore date” list, and then click on Next.

5) Click on the Next button on the verification screen.

6) Reboot the computer system once the restoration has finished.

problem with this is that i cannot even boot on windows 7 at all since that is what caused the headache.

The initial problem: "Reboot and select proper or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"