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I'm having a problem with my computer. It displays

reboot and select proper Boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key

Why does it display that message and how can I resolve it?

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    Sounds like it can't find your operating system. What are you running, Windows 7, XP...? Have you added any hard drives recently?
    – CGA
    Mar 31, 2011 at 6:55
  • Please, add some more informations. Something like: "the problem started after I did..." or "I tried to install a second OS on my PC, and the dual boot failed" would be helpful.
    – dag729
    Jun 17, 2012 at 20:27

2 Answers 2

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Assuming that you have installed an operating system and expect it to boot, I'd say that your MBR is broken. MBR stands for Master Boot Record and contains information about the operating system to be loaded.

When you are receiving this error message you either tried to (re)install an OS and it failed, malware destroyed your MBR or you broke it by any other measures.

If you ran Linux, I'd recommend to boot from a Live CD and repair the MBR. https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=grub+repairing+mbr

If you ran Windows, I'd recommend to put in an installation CD and try the repair assistant.

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Assuming you haven't just added a new hard drive to your system, I can think of a few possibilities:

  • Unprepared bootable media in some drive (pull out your thumb drive and empty the CD tray and reboot)
  • Virus trashed your MBR (get a boot disk and repair/reinstall your system)
  • Hard disk failure (replace the failed device, get an install disc and reinstall your system)
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