"No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key"

Question

Level 2

297 points

"No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key"

Boot camp on MBP running Lion, with Windows 7 on Boot Camp partition. Until recently no problems, could start up in Windows or Mac OS using option key at startup or selecting startup disk in system pref. Now Windows does not appear when starting up while holding option key. If I select boot camp in system prefs and restart I get screen.... "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key"

Rereading Boot camp manual in looks like I must start all over, which is a pain, ie. delete partition , reinstall windows etc..

While I don't spend a lot of time on windows, I do boot in every day or two and have accumulated a bunch of SW.

Please tell me there is something out there that can fix what ever it was that caused this problem.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Mar 18, 2012 11:24 AM

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Answer 1

Jaygyver

Level 3

739 points

Mar 18, 2012 3:25 PM in response to Bill3

Resetting the PRAM seems to help.

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Answer 2

Jan 3, 2013 6:33 PM in response to Bill3

If you have a disk image of your Windows partition, you could try re-imaging it with that. Or perhaps if you can, load the Windows installer and use it to repair. Basically it's no longer detecting your "BOOTCAMP" partition as a bootable partition.

In future, if you have something like VMware Fusion, you could use it to make a snapshot of your Windows install. Then it's easy to port to another computer. It's also easier to restore a b0rked install.

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