EPTUpon booting it up at my parent's —
"Default Boot Device Missing or Boot Failed"
I know enough to know this means possible hard drive failure or BIOs problem. BIOs problem seemed unlikely since the computer hadn't changed, just hadn't been used. So I figured maybe the hard drive died or something.
I bought it when I had my quarter life crisis (joking mostly) and moved to Amsterdam. After I returned to the US I had my gaming desktop again so the laptop didn't see any use.
A few days later I remember I was meaning to try and confirm the diagnosis and fix it. Maybe open up the laptop and re-plug in the HDD in case it just came loose somehow. Queue tonight:
Upon opening my laptop case...
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/t6APYcU.jpg)
There is no hard drive.
I am spooked.
I feel violated.
I am... confused.
How is this possible?
Who wouldn't just steal the whole laptop? It's pretty nice, even used and a few years old could maybe get a few hundred for it. (Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition.)
Perhaps some savvy criminal who is after the hard drive data... but again. As soon as someone boots the laptop they (or a technician they bring it to if they aren't tech savvy) will diagnose it has no hard drive! WHY NOT TAKE THE WHOLE LAPTOP?
WHO WOULD TAKE THE BACK PANEL OFF (TWELVE SCREWS!!!!) AND THEN PUT IT BACK ON INCLUDING ELEVEN OF THE SCREWS. ONLY ONE IS MISSING WTF!? (Maybe it just came out naturally for all I know,)
This brings me to the sanity question. But while my memory isn't perfect (then again whose is?) I am SURE I have never taken apart this laptop at all, much less removed the hard drive.
This theft must have happened a long time ago I suspect (like I said, I never use the laptop so I don't have a good idea for when it occurred....) The only roommate I suspect is the guy who I only overlapped with for a very short period of time when I first moved in.
It seems like a long shot though, but perhaps he noticed my gaming computer, and took the gamble that I never actually use my gaming laptop, and knew the stolen HDD could go unnoticed for an extended period of time, clearing himself of being pinned with the burgle. It seems like a long shot though. And I have utter confidence none of my other roommates would have done this.
Thankfully writing the above paragraph made me realize I sound like a legit crazy person... So I thought a little harder.
And realized my laptop didn't come with a mechanical hard drive, just a SSD... Which apparently in laptops looks just like a RAM stick (shown in the picture just above the red circle.)
It's still in there, and I learned something today.
Bad news is... still have to troubleshoot/fix laptop.
Thanks for reading.
