Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device has affected many users. This error occurs when BIOS is unable to find the boot drive. In other words, BIOS is not able to find the drive where your Operating System (OS) is installed. So, OS gets disconnected from the motherboard. Another reason can be a corrupted OS.
Fix 1 – Check the Boot Order Settings in BIOS
Booting starts with a hard drive, and in case the first boot device is not hard to drive but some USB drive, then the error “Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device” would occur.
So, you need to check the Boot Order Settings in BIOS and if the first priority is not the hard drive, change the boot device. To go into BIOS follow the below steps:
1. Hold the Shift button and then turn off the system.
2. Hold the Function key from keyboard (F1, F2,F3, Esc, Delete) and then click the power button.
3. Do not release the function key until BIOS screen is displayed.
4. Enter the boot menu and follow the instructions to open Boot priority order list and set the first Boot Device to HDD.
Fix 2 – Use Diskpart
Another reason for error “Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device” is the primary hard drive partition is no longer active. So, you just need to set your primary hard drive partition as active. To perform this follow the below steps:
1. Insert a Recovery/Installation media into the computer.
2. Restart your computer and boot from media you have inserted.
Navigate the screen until you find options to restore, recover or repair your system. After clicking the option, you will be redirected to System Recovery Options screen on Windows XP, Vista and 7 or screen for Troubleshooting on Windows 8 or more.
3. Now, open the command prompt. To open the command prompt in Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 clicks on Command prompt option on System Recovery Options window and to open the command prompt on Windows 8 or higher do as follows:
Troubleshoot → Advanced Options → Command Prompt
4. Type the following commands one by one and press Enter after each command.
diskpart
list partition
Select partition X (x be the name of your primary partition)
active
If you do not have Recovery/ Installation media, you can launch the command prompt using Easy Recovery Essentials. Follow the below steps to do this:
1. Go to the link.
2. Download the file.
3. Burn file to CD or USB.
4. Now, insert the media into the system.
5. Restart the system and boot from media you have inserted.
6. Click on launch cmd under section Select a Recovery option.
7. Execute the commands described above.
Fix 3 – Cleaning RAM
Sometimes the error “Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device” occurs because the RAM is dusty. So you need to clean your RAM, i.e., clean the dust on RAM with a cloth and now check if the Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device error fixes or not.
Fix 4 – Checking the Power Cable Connecting the Hard Disk Drive (HDD)
In case the power cable is not connected properly or is broken, the Hard Disk Drive detection will not occur and the error “Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device” occurs.
So, one of the easy Fixs is to test your power cable on another system, and if the same error occurs on that system, it means your power cable is broken. So, buy a new power cable and replace the old one with a new power cable.
Fix 5 – Replace CMOS Battery of System
CMOS Battery is a small coin shaped chip located inside computer that stores information like system date and time, system hardware settings and is one of the reasons for the error “Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device”. So, in case of error occurs what you need to do is:
1. Open your Computer Rig.
2. Find out the CMOS battery on the motherboard.
3. Remove the CMOS battery.
4. Hold the power button for a few seconds.
5. Replace the CMOS battery with a new one.
Final Words
If none of the above fixes works for you, the last option is to reinstall windows on your system and try to recover all the data while installing windows again.
