Why can't my laptop find its hard disk when I boot up?

Q  When attempting to start my Toshiba netbook from its internal hard disk drive, it displays the message: ‘BOOTMGR is missing. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart’.

I have used the Windows 7 recovery option, but when it asks for a partition to use, no hard disk can be found. The Seagate 160GB Sata hard disk is recognised in the Bios. Is this a dead hard disk or a software issue?
David Richardson

A  Windows 7 installs only the driver necessary for the hard disk drive on which it is installed. This means any changes to a Sata boot drive’s low-level configuration can confuse the operating system. This can happen if the Sata mode in the netbook’s Bios settings are accidentally changed or if the Bios settings are inadvertently reset.

To check this, first access netbook’s Bios settings – this is usually achieved by pressing the F2, F10 or Delete key shortly after powering up. Now look for an option labelled ‘Sata Mode Selection’, or similar.

This will be set either to IDE or AHCI: change this to the corresponding opposite setting, save the changes, exit the Bios and restart Windows (or re-try the recovery option).

If this doesn’t fix the problem, then it’s likely the hard disk itself has developed a fault. If you have access to another PC, confirm this by downloading and burning the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD).

This can be used to start your netbook from an external CD or DVD drive, and then use UBCD (which include Seagate’s own test tools) to assess the drive without the added confusion of what Windows can and can’t ‘see’.

If the Ultimate Boot CD can’t detect the drive either, it supports the suggestion of a hardware fault.