Help! GX700 won't boot up after hard drive removal!

Help! I just got a MSI GX700 laptop. I was thinking of upgrading the stock hard drive, so I removed it and put it back in just to make sure it's easy to do so before buying another hard drive to install myself. However, since then, I no longer able to boot up windows.

I did try the recovery DVD, however that says it'll reformat my drive and return to factory settings, because I didn't want to loose all my data, i didn't proceed with that.

Help, how do I fix this problem! I've done the same with my previous Asus V6V laptop, (remove and put back in) and never had the same problem. Is this specific to MSI laptops? or just my MSI laptop?

Thanks in advance!

 

Take it out again and insert it again... Do you have an external HD enclosure you can insert the HDD into to test it?

 

Yeah i tried that, still didn't work... guess I'll go buy an enclosure to test it out.

A bit more detail about the problem:
It has the typical boot up screen where you can press F8, F11, or Del
After that, it appear to try to boot up some "Realtek Network..." and it then says something like "Media test failed", and "...enter boot source and try again" and just keeps repeating that until i shut it down.

 

It sounds like your BIOS is not recognizing the hard drive at boot. Enter setup next time you start it up and:

1. Verify that the hard drive is detected, and

2. That it is the primary boot device.

If the hard drive isn't detected try and see if you can force the BIOS to detect it. If it is detected and it is not the primary boot device, then just make it the boot device. Also check and see if your getting a message something like "CMOS Checksum Error Please Enter Setup" just before you get your boot error. If you are seeing that message, then the computer just needs you to make the Hard drive the primary boot device and you should be good to go.

I can't guarantee that any of this will help or even work, but it's worth a try.

 

Nope the drive is not detected. In the BIOS setup, under boot priority sequence, the only choices I can pick up for primary or secondary boot device are:
1. DVD/CD,
2. Network Realtek Boot Agent,
3. Disable

No I don't get any check sum error...

Sounds i'll have to deal with warranty? hope the MSI warranty is hassel-free...

 

The hard disk is not fully seated in the sata connector. There are two screws that hold the hdd carrier in place, loosen both. There is a plastic handle on the carrier, by the handle push the drive into the connector. Also on the hdd carrier there is a lock tab on the bottom, if you missed the lock slot when reinstalling the drive this will prevent the drive from seating into the connector.

 

Yeah turns out I just didn't shove it in far enough! though kinda stupid built quality by MSI, cuz when I shove it in, it does "feel" like it's locked into position (and far enough to screw the casing into the base). Turns out had to shove it in an extra mm from there.

So far I"m not happy with the overall built quality of this MSI... ie. plastic casing feel a bit cheesy, touch pad buttons are hard to click and also loud... DVD drive keep popping back out after closing it, seem like it requires to be pushed in some sort of special angle in order to stay closed (haven't figured it out yet), etc... but I guess that's why it's cheap. They didn't go cheap on performance, hence had to go cheap on physical quality.

Anways, THANKS ALL! glad I dind't have to deal with the hassel of shipping back for warranty.