When a PC cannot boot and the hard drive is not recognized, what message is most likely to appear during the startup?

When a PC fails to boot and the hard drive is not recognized, the message that most likely appears during the startup process is "No boot device available." This indicates that the system's BIOS or UEFI firmware cannot locate a valid data source to load the operating system, typically a hard drive.

The message arises because the BIOS is configured to look for a bootable device, but since the hard drive is not recognized—possibly due to issues such as faulty connections, a malfunctioning drive, or even incorrect BIOS settings—there are no available devices from which to boot. This scenario leads to the system not being able to proceed beyond the initial startup phase, as it relies on a recognized device to locate and load the operating system.

The other messages mentioned refer to different issues. "NTLDR not found" specifically indicates that the Windows boot loader file is missing or corrupted, which assumes the hard drive is recognized but the operating system files are not intact. "Operating system not found" implies that the boot loader has been located, but it cannot find the required files to initiate the operating system; this may occur if the drive is recognized but improperly configured. "BIOS ROM checksum error" suggests a failure in the BIOS itself, which is a separate