It’s never pleasant to turn on your computer only to be greeted by an error screen that prohibits you from booting into your operating system or doing anything for that matter. It causes anxiety and perplexity because you can’t access anything, no matter how many times you restart your computer.
Many Windows 10/8/7 users experience the “reboot and select correct boot device” black screen problem message. Corrupted system files, a failed or failing hard disk drive, or even tampering with the computer’s boot order can cause this error to appear out of nowhere. Let’s look at the many origins of this error message, as well as eight possible solutions.
Do you have a particular question about “Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device on Windows 10” error? Then use the table of contents below to jump to the most relevant section. And you can always go back by clicking on the black arrow in the right bottom corner of the page. Also, please note that some of the links in this article may be affiliate links. For more details, check the Disclosure section at the bottom of the page.
Here's what we'll cover:
- What Is the Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device Error?
- Causes of “Reboot and select proper Boot Device” error
- Check if Your Hard Drive is powered
- Clean Your RAM
- Check if the hard disk has failed
- Check Boot Order
- Set BIOS to Best Defaults
- Rebuild MBR (Recommended for Legacy BIOS Users)
- Set Correct Partition Active (Recommended for Legacy BIOS Users)
- Reinstall Windows
What Is the Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device Error?
The “reboot and select proper boot device” error indicates that your computer cannot locate the operating system.
Your system BIOS/UEFI determines which hard drive your operating system is on during the boot process. The operating system is then started, and you are presented with the Windows 10 login screen. That’s a very simplified description of what happened, but you get the idea.
The BIOS will not load if it is unable to locate the operating system.
Causes of “Reboot and select proper Boot Device” error
Many factors can lead to this inaccuracy. And before you can solve it, you’ll have to figure out what’s causing it. Any of the following factors could be to blame for this error:
The boot order is incorrect. Your hard disk (HDD) must be listed in the boot order of your machine;
The bootloader is broken;
Hardware failure;
On UEFI-based systems, the legacy mode can be enabled or disabled. The “Reboot and select appropriate Boot Device” problem may happen if your Windows 10 was installed with the UEFI Legacy mode turned off;
Another cause of this problem could be a hard drive failure or an active partition. And that’s only to name a few examples. Let’s get to the possible fixes now.
Check if Your Hard Drive is powered
Your operating system’s hard disk drive must be powered up and linked to your motherboard via a power cable. It’s conceivable that your hard disk isn’t being detected by the computer if the power cable is broken, frayed, or connected incorrectly.
Shut down and restart your computer.
Check whether the power cord connecting your hard drive disk to your motherboard is physically broken or not connected properly.
If it appears to be connected, but you’re still getting the issue, unplug it and try it on another computer.
Replace the power cable with a new one if the problem occurs on the test computer.
If the problem does not appear on the test computer, reconnect your power cable and go to the next step.
Clean Your RAM
If you haven’t cleaned or removed your RAM since you first purchased your computer, it could be the source of the problem. To clean the RAM:
- Turn off your computer and remove the sideboard by unscrewing the screws from the tower/bottom of the laptop, then look for your RAM.
- Remove the clamps that hold your RAM in place by unlocking them and slowly removing them.
- With the soft cloth, remove any dust from the RAM and reinstall it in its slots.
- Clamp them in place, turn off your computer, and restart to see whether the problem still exists.
Check if the hard disk has failed
Use Easy Recovery Essentials Automated Repair to see if your hard disk is failing or has already failed. Any problems with your hard disk or RAM memory will be reported by the Automated Repair process:
Download Easy Recovery Essentials
The ISO image should be burned. To create a bootable ISO image, follow our instructions. Instead, if you’d prefer a recovery USB, read our instructions on producing a recovery USB.
Boot into Easy Recovery Essentials
Choose Automated Repair
Wait for the Automated Repair process to complete before clicking Continue. Any problems with your hard disk or RAM memory will be reported by the Automated Repair process.
Check Boot Order
The most straightforward solution to the “Reboot and pick suitable Boot Device” error is to double-check that your computer’s boot order correctly lists your hard disk as the first choice.
Follow these procedures to check the boot order:
- Reboot your computer.
- To access the BIOS menu, press the appropriate key. This key is determined by the manufacturer and model of your computer. This is usually displayed on the first screen of your monitor. Any of the following could be the case: F2, F8, F10, or F12; Esc, Del, F2, F8, F10, or F12. Find the key that opens “BIOS,” “setup,” or “BIOS menu” if your screen has numerous keys. From here, the boot order is modified.
- Take note of the key guide in the top-right corner.
- Navigate to the Boot tab.
- Change the boot order so that your computer’s HDD is listed first in the Boot Selection Menu.
- Boot the menu.
- Save the changes.
- Your computer should be restarted to see if it’s worked.
Set BIOS to Best Defaults
While this is a long shot, not having your BIOS set to its default values can sometimes cause instability. The “reboot and pick correct boot device error” could be caused by this instability. To get to this, restart your computer and go into your BIOS, where you should find an option to “load optimal defaults.” Restart after loading the defaults.
Rebuild MBR (Recommended for Legacy BIOS Users)
Step 1: In the MiniTool Partition Wizard main window, choose the Windows disk and click the Rebuild MBR feature.
Step 2: To save the changes, click Apply.
You should be able to start Windows after that. Otherwise, you’ll have to reboot again and select the proper boot device fix.
Set Correct Partition Active (Recommended for Legacy BIOS Users)
Instead of using Diskpart, you should use MiniTool Partition Wizard, a professional partition manager, to set active partition appropriately and avoid the “reboot and pick proper boot” issue. The former application has a nice GUI (Graphical User Interface), while the latter is a command-based utility.
To do this task, you’ll require MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition, included in all premium editions.
Step 1: To get the main window below, download, install, and register the application on another computer. Please select Bootable Media from the upper right corner of the screen.
Step 2: Choose a USB flash drive or a DVD/CD disc for the bootable media creation. See How to Create Boot CD/DVD Discs, and Boot Flash Drives using Bootable Media Builder for additional details.
Step 3: Next, boot the unbootable machine from the produced bootable disc to access the MiniTool Partition Wizard main interface.
The Windows boot files’ partition should generally be set active, and it is always the system reserved disk. There will be no system reserved partition if you install Windows 10/8/7 to an assigned partition, and your C drive should be set active.
As a result, you must check the state of each partition to verify if there is already an active partition. If not, use the Set Active function and select the system reserved partition or C drive. If a wrong partition is set active, you must first make the faulty partition inactive before making the proper partition active.
Step 4: Finally, click the Apply button to save all of your changes.
The issue – “reboot and pick suitable boot device” may be resolved by restarting your computer, such as ASUS, Acer, Gigabyte, Toshiba, and so on.
Reinstall Windows
As we all know, Reinstalling Windows will wipe out all files saved on the boot partition (it is always the drive C). So, what if this drive contains vital documents? We suppose you’d all like to get them out right away, but how do you do that while Windows isn’t booting?
When the computer says insert boot media in selected boot device, MiniTool ShadowMaker, a professional backup software, makes it simple to back up your important files.
What can you do if your computer won’t start, but you still want to back up and save your stuff? This article will demonstrate how to back up data from a machine that would not boot.
Step 1: To begin, use its Media Builder to create bootable media and restart the computer from the media.
Step 2: Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker from the MiniTool PE Loader page.
Step 3: On the Backup screen, select the files you want to back up and the location where you want to save them.
Step 4: Select Back up Now to begin the backup.
Following that, you can reinstall Windows without fear of losing vital data. Furthermore, the issue “Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device or Insert Boot Media in Proper Boot Device and Press a Key” should be resolved.
Your hard disk may have become corrupted if you could not reinstall Windows or if the new Windows is still unbootable.
Credits: Thanks for the photo to Canva.
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