My Acer One Netbook with Windows 7 Starter Edition suddenly stops responding. It just stuck and froze from the last window I am in. So I literally took off the battery which I think is not a good idea but even the power button will not work so I have to force close it. When turning the system on, it says, boot device not found. And there is an odd noise inside it. Sounds like a fan is continuously running but it is really loud. I run the USB to reformat my netbook but it can't find the hard disk. Here are the specifications of my Acer One Netbook for reference:
Intel Atom Processor N 455
System Memory: 1 Gb
Hard Drive: 250 Gb
Pre installed Windows 7 Starter Edition
USB and Memory Slot Connectivity
WiFi
What can be the cause of this? Is there any free software that I can use to fix this? And Why can't I access my hard drive?
I am using my netbook for travel use only, so I don't see any reason that it will turn to be like this. I hope I did not broke the hard drive. Can a virus destroy a hard drive? But I only use this for chat purposes only when I'm not at home. I don't have too many applications loaded on my netbook. I have about 200+ free spaces on my HDD. Please help me on this matter. Thank you.
Hard Drive can’t be found on Acer One Netbook
My initial diagnosis on your problem is with your hard drive.   The fact that it says ‘boot device not found’  quickly points to a hard drive problem .  In addition to that the odd noise that you hear that sounds like a fan spinning  could be actually you hard drive disk continuously spinning while the system is trying to read information from your hard drive.    That answers your first question.
Failure to read information from the hard drive might be due to some bad sectors.  If critical information resides in a bad sector your hard drive will not be accessible at system boot.   Bad sectors can either be disc mechanical failure or simply normal wear and tear of disc surfaces.  There are however some spare locations in your hard drive where information on these bad sectors can be reallocated. Information on these bad sectors although not accessible during normal operation can still be recovered.
You may  try to fix the problem by running CHKDSK/R which will try to read information from bad sectors in your hard drive and re-allocate them to the available spare sectors.  You can use the windows  operating system disk  or the USB drive that you are using to gain access to the available repair options or the command prompt where you need to type CHKDSK/R  <hard drive letter>: .    The /R switch stands for repair.  CHKDSK will take several minutes to an hour to complete depending on the size of your hard drive.  Once it’s done, just restart your system.
If your restoration disc does not give any option for repair, there are available free software that you can download and burn to a disc so you can have a bootable disc and gain access to the command prompt.  But try this first: ask a friend or somebody who has a windows 7 based system to create a recovery disc for you which would basically contain recovery tools for windows.  Just go to control panel-> back up and restore->create system repair disc.
Since you also mentioned that you use your netbook for travel.  It may be due to contacts that have loosened up a little.   If your hard drive is a removable unit, you can also try to reseat it if there’s a way for you to do so.  Remove the hard drive and put it back in.  Do not attempt to this however if you are not certain about the procedure as it may do more harm than good.
Viruses can possibly destroy your hard drive but not to the extent of physical or mechanical damage.  They may however corrupt you system files that could crash down your system or corrupt the boot sectors which leads to operating system being unable to load.
If your unit still has an active warranty, it may also be a time to check for hard drive failure if there’s a built-in test available run it.  But if there’s none, contact your dealer or an authorized service center for possible hard drive replacement.  I would assume that you are ready to reformat your system which would result to lost of user data in your hard drive.  You also have the choice in case there are important files in your system that needs to be recovered to seek professional service for hard drive recovery.
Hard Drive can’t be found on Acer One Netbook
Thank you for your help Miloeveryday. I run the CHKDSK and took me whole day before it finished but the problem still exist. My netbook does not have optical drive so I can't use any disk with it. Until I found out that my hard drive needs a replacement. Luckily, because you make me remember, I called the manufacturer and found out that this was under warranty so they replace the hard disk for free. Thanks again for your time and effort to help me fix my problem.
Hard Drive can’t be found on Acer One Netbook
Seems like your internal hard drive suddenly gone missing. That’s what caused the system to freeze because the drive suddenly disconnected. First, try checking if the drive is detected in the BIOS. Restart your computer then press Del, Delete, F2, or whichever key is used to go to the BIOS. In the BIOS, navigate to the drive management section then see if the hard drive is displayed.
If the drive is detected, it should appear when you format your computer. But if you don’t see your drive in there, it means the drive can’t be detected. In this case, the laptop has to be opened to check why the drive is disconnected. You need to bring it to a computer repair shop to have it checked.
Don’t try it yourself because there are many small parts and disassembling it is a big work.
