Hello everyone, today I will tell you how to solve the insert boot media error while loading the operating system, in my case it was Windows 8.1. Let's look at all the reasons for this problem and how to prevent them. I would like to note that this problem can affect absolutely everyone, no one is immune from it and it doesn’t matter whether you have a laptop or a personal computer, whether you use an SSD drive or just a HDD, although the latter are much more prone to error due to their device, but about everything below.
What does insert boot media mean?
Here you don’t need to have a huge knowledge of the English language to understand that your computer simply has nothing to boot from; it simply doesn’t see the hard drive on which your operating system is installed. This problem dates back to Windows 7; during my time as an administrator, I encountered it very often after an abnormal shutdown of computers. This, of course, is not such a hemorrhoid as a black screen in Windows, but it also makes you waste time.
- See if you have a flash drive inserted, if so, remove it, and don’t forget to correct the boot order, more on that below.
- The most common cause of the Reboot and Select proper Boot device or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device error is the incorrect boot order in the BIOS, if there are several hard drives or a sticking out flash drive. The solution is to restore the correct boot order of devices in the BIOS. As a result, booting from the desired disk and no insert boot media error.
Your BIOS can be either old or new UEFI, see in detail how to set the required HDD in the Boot Device Priority item.
or UEFI, look in the BIOS Features section, in the Boot Options item (the last item may be located in a different place, but the boot order is set there).
- Check the Sata and power connections inside your system unit to see if anything has come loose, and try to plug it into another port if there is one.
- There may be a problem with the battery on the motherboard, which was discharged, which ultimately led to the BIOS reset.
Windows bootloader is damaged
The insert boot media error also happens very often, especially if there was a shutdown due to a power surge, what should I do, restore it correctly. There are two options:
I described in detail how to do both, check out the links above.
HDD is broken
Well, the worst thing is physical damage. There's nothing you can do about it; in most cases, it's 100% data loss and replacing the hard drive. The insert boot media error will already require a fresh installation of Windows. Before diagnosing a disk, you can try connecting it to another computer or portable box, or check it with the Victoria utility to see its condition and the number of bad blocks.
If this error is displayed on the monitor screen when you turn on the computer, then do not panic. There are several possible reasons why it might appear. Accordingly, there are several options for eliminating it.
What does this error mean?
First, let's figure out what the reboot and select proper boot device and press a key error means. Everything is simple here. Your computer or laptop. Simply put, it doesn’t know where to load the operating system from. Most often, the boot device is a hard drive. A little further we will figure out why a PC may stop seeing the boot device and what options there are to solve this problem.
Causes and solution:
- Banal non-contact of cables on the hard drive.
This situation may occur because one of the two cables going to the hard drive is disconnected or damaged. You should open the computer case cover and visually assess the condition of these cables. It is advisable to disconnect them and reconnect them, and do this both from the hard drive side and from the motherboard side. If you notice that the cables are damaged or broken in some place, they need to be replaced.
Solving the problem with the error reboot and select proper boot device and press a key
In a laptop, this situation is impossible, since there are no cables. The laptop connector is located directly on the motherboard.
- The boot priority setting in the BIOS has gone wrong.
Another fairly common reason for the error to appear is when the boot priority order in the BIOS settings is confused. Or the priority of hard drives when there are several of them installed in the computer.
In this case, you need to check this setting.
To do this, go to the BIOS by pressing F2, Delete, F10 or F12 and set your hard drive (HDD) to first place.
This is what it looks like on the AMI:
This is for the BIOS Award:
And this is for modern motherboards with UEFI BIOS:
- If you have several hard drives installed and one of them contains the operating system. Then pay attention to the fact that it is the system disk that comes first in the hard drive priorities.
- If, after all the actions taken, the name of the hard drive is displayed in the BIOS (something similar to the previous photo), it means that something happened to one or more files responsible for loading the operating system.
And you will have to either restore it or reinstall it. I also recommend checking your hard drive for bad sectors.
- In the worst case scenario, when the hard drive is not displayed in the BIOS, the hard drive is most likely faulty and requires replacement.
This article outlined the most common situations in which an error may appear. reboot and select proper boot device and press a key when loading the computer, as well as all possible solutions to solve it.
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Quite often computer users encounter this problem. The Reboot and select proper boot device error can occur for many reasons, and if you encounter this problem, your computer will not be able to load the operating system.
I would like to note that the Reboot and select proper boot device error is not as critical as it might seem, and often this problem can be easily solved without calling a specialist or incurring any costs.
Below I would like to present you with a number of reasons for the Reboot and select proper boot device error and their solutions.
Reason #1.
One of the reasons for the error may be that the computer is trying to load the operating system from an external hard drive, flash drive, etc.
In this case, you should disconnect all external drives and restart your computer. If this was the reason, then the computer should boot.
Reason #2.
One of the most common causes of the Reboot and select proper boot device error may be the computer attempting to load the operating system from another hard drive on which it is not installed. This happens due to incorrect BIOS settings; in order to set boot priority from the hard drive you need, you need to change the settings.
Go to the BIOS, open the Boot tab and look for something like the “Boot Device Priority” item.
Please note that the settings for each manufacturer are different and the names may differ, therefore, either try to find out how to change the boot priority setting yourself, or you can ask a question in the comments to the article, indicating the brand of your motherboard and its manufacturer, I will try to tell you.
After you find this item, indicate the hard drive on which you have the operating system installed. Press F10 and put the letter “Y” in the pop-up window to confirm saving the settings. Restart your computer.
If you couldn’t cope with the BIOS settings, then there is another option: when you boot the computer, press the F10, F12, rarely F8 key; here, too, it all depends on your motherboard.
If you pressed the correct key, you will see a window with a selection of drives to boot.
Select the one on which your operating system is installed.
Reason #3.
If you tried to change the boot priority using any of the methods above, but did not find your storage medium in the list, this may mean that you have problems connecting the hard drive, check the SATA connectors.
Reason No. 4.
It is unlikely, but it is quite possible that your hard drive has failed; this could happen, for example, due to viruses in the system, a power failure, power surge, etc. In this case, the system will no longer detect your hard drive.
Reason #5.
The Reboot and select proper boot device error can also occur due to a dead battery on the motherboard, which is responsible for saving BIOS settings. It is quite easy to determine whether the battery is dead or not; you need to turn off the computer and unplug it from the outlet for about three minutes.
Then turn on the computer and go to the BIOS settings to check the date and time, if they are wrong, then you need to.
Reason No. 6.
One of the reasons may also be damage to the Windows boot file, and if none of the options above work for you, then most likely the Reboot and select proper boot device error occurs precisely because of this.
This case may require, but only if it is not possible to restore the boot file.
I’ll tell you how you can try to restore a boot file using the Windows 7 operating system as an example.
I wrote about this earlier, and this article will be useful to us now.
And so we boot the system from a DVD with an operating system, we will think that you have the original operating system installed, and not “assemblies” available on the Internet, or in the case when you are using some converted assembly, then you have the disk from which it was installed. But I advise you not to install converted builds of the operating system; you can find disks with the original system on the Internet.
After choosing to boot from a DVD, we will see a window to begin installing the operating system. We are interested in the “System Restore” item in the lower left corner of the window. 
By clicking on it, we select the operating system from the list for which we want to restore the boot file. In cases where you use one operating system, you won't have much choice. 
Next we need to select “Command Line”. 
Enter the following commands “bootrec /fixmbr” and “bootrec /fixboot”, after entering each command, press the “Enter” button. 
We close the command line and reboot the computer, if everything written above was done correctly, then the computer should boot. The Reboot and select proper boot device error should no longer bother you.
Hello.
Today’s article is dedicated to one “old” error: “reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key” (which translated into Russian reads: “reboot and select the correct boot device or insert boot media into the boot device device and press any key”, see Fig. 1).
This error appears after turning on the computer, before Windows loads. It occurs quite often after: installing a second hard drive in the system, changing BIOS settings, during an emergency shutdown of the PC (for example, if the lights are turned off), etc. In this article, we will look at the main reasons for its occurrence and how to get rid of it. So…
Reason #1 (most popular) - the media is not removed from the boot device
Rice. 1. Typical type of error “reboot and select...”.
The most popular reason for this error is user forgetfulness... Without exception, all computers are equipped with CD/DVD drives, there are USB ports, older PCs are equipped with floppy drives, etc.
If, before turning off the PC, you did not remove, for example, the floppy disk from the drive, and then turn on the computer after some time, you will most likely see this error. Therefore, when this error appears, the very first recommendation is to remove all disks, floppy disks, flash drives, external hard drives, etc. and restart your computer.
In the vast majority of cases, the problem will be solved and after a reboot the OS will start loading.
Reason #2 - changing BIOS settings
Most often, users change BIOS settings on their own: either out of ignorance or by accident. In addition, you need to look into the BIOS settings after installing various equipment: for example, another hard drive or a CD/DVD drive.
I have a dozen articles on my blog dedicated to BIOS settings, so here (in order not to repeat myself) I will provide links to the necessary entries:
- how to enter BIOS(keys for from different laptop and PC manufacturers):
Description of all BIOS settings (the article is old, but many points from it are still relevant today):
After you enter the BIOS, you need to find the partition BOOT(loading). It is in this section that boot order and boot priorities for different devices (It is according to this list that the computer checks devices for the presence of boot records and tries to boot from them in this sequence. If this list is “incorrect”, then the error “reboot and select...” may appear.).
In Fig. 1. The BOOT partition of a DELL laptop is shown (in principle, the partitions on other laptops will be similar). The bottom line is that “Hard Drive” (hard drive) is second in this list (see the yellow arrow opposite “2nd Boot Priority”), but you need to boot from the hard drive in the first line - “1st Boot Priority”!
Rice. 1. Setting up BIOS / BOOT partition (Dell Inspiron laptop)
After making changes and saving the settings (by the way, you can exit the BIOS without saving the settings!), the computer often boots in normal mode (without various types of errors appearing on a black screen...).
Reason No. 3 - the battery is dead
Have you ever wondered why, after turning off and turning on your PC, the time on it does not change? The fact is that there is a small battery (tablet type) on the motherboard. In fact, it runs out quite rarely, but if the computer is no longer new, plus you noticed that the time on the PC began to go wrong (and after that this error appeared) - it is quite likely that this battery may cause this error.
The fact is that the parameters that you set in the BIOS are stored in CMOS memory (the name of the technology with which the chip is made). CMOS consumes very little energy and one battery can sometimes last for decades (from 5 to 15 years on average*)! If this battery is dead, then the settings you entered (in reason 2 of this article) in the BOOT section may not be saved after rebooting the PC, as a result you see this error again...
Rice. 2. Typical view of a battery on a computer motherboard
Reason #4 - hard drive problem
The “reboot and select proper...” error may also indicate a more serious problem - a problem with the hard drive (perhaps it’s time to replace it with a new one).
First, go to the BIOS (see point 2 of this article, it shows how to do this) and see if your disk model is detected in it (and in general, whether it is visible). You can see the hard drive in the BIOS on the first screen or in the BOOT section.
Rice. 3. Is the hard drive detected in the BIOS? In this screenshot, everything is in order (hard drive: WDC WD 5000BEVT-22A0RT0)
You can also sometimes determine whether the PC recognized the disk or not if you look closely at the first inscriptions on the black screen when you turn on the computer (important: this can not be done on all PC models).
If the hard drive is not detected- before making final conclusions, it is advisable to test it on another computer (laptop). By the way, a sudden problem with a hard drive is usually associated with a fall of the PC (or any other mechanical impact). Less commonly, a disk problem is caused by a sudden power outage.
Important point. The hard drive may not be detected not only because of its physical damage. It is possible that the interface cable has simply come loose (for example).