Aspire E5-575G No bootable device Error! SSD is empty! Windows Product Key missing!

I have an Acer Aspire E5-575G laptop. It came with a 256GB SSD in which Windows 10 was pre-loaded. Machine was shut-down two days back and on starting it yesterday morning, throwed "No Bootable device" error. It took a long while even to throw this error. Lost my recovery drive and hence created a Windows bootable USB from Microsoft website to repair it. After much of troubleshooting through various options, it is found that my SSD had gone empty and no partition is found now as per Diskpart. I am not sure whether I can recover the data from there, but I can install windows from the bootable USB. I have the laptop serial number, but not the product key for windows. There is no sticker on the laptop with Windows product key. I cannot find it anywhere. Though it can be found using wmic commands as the disk is completely empty and no windows in there, I cannot run these commands. If I reinstall windows, will it ask for a product key and if so, how do I get it?

(Thread was edited to add model name to the title)

Accepted answers

ttttt

@perfy

Chances are you have a bad SSD.

You don't need to find the product key from your PC. Since it came with Win 10 installed, the license was embedded in the motherboard.

When activation Windows, just answer " I don't have a product key". Windows will detect the digital license from the motherboard automatically.

ttttt

@perfy

The designed M.2 slot is for SATA SSD, not NVMe type.

Since it uses 7th generation Intel CPU, there is still a chance that it can use NVMe SSD.
If you have an extra NVMe SSD, you can try to put one in and test it. If it can run, it will be at the speed of x2 (1,700 MB/s read). No guarantee it will work, just something to try, because some M.2 SATA slots can take NVMe type at lower speed.

All comments

ttttt

@perfy

Chances are you have a bad SSD.

You don't need to find the product key from your PC. Since it came with Win 10 installed, the license was embedded in the motherboard.

When activation Windows, just answer " I don't have a product key". Windows will detect the digital license from the motherboard automatically.

perfy

@ttttt, yes its a bad SSD. All my efforts to resurrect that had gone futile. Any idea whether I can replace that with a M.2 NVMe SSD or it has to be M.2 SATA?

ttttt

@perfy

The designed M.2 slot is for SATA SSD, not NVMe type.

Since it uses 7th generation Intel CPU, there is still a chance that it can use NVMe SSD.
If you have an extra NVMe SSD, you can try to put one in and test it. If it can run, it will be at the speed of x2 (1,700 MB/s read). No guarantee it will work, just something to try, because some M.2 SATA slots can take NVMe type at lower speed.

Easwar

Hi @perfy,

Reset this PC and keep my files
1. Shutdown the unit. Press and hold alt+F10 key. Then turn ON the unit.
2. You will get a blue screen. Choose the option troubleshoot.

3 Ways to Reset Acer Laptop to Factory Settings without Password

3. Select Keep my files to refresh your PC and reinstall your operating system without removing your personal files. Click Next to continue. Important If you have apps installed on your PC, they will be removed.
4. Resetting the PC will reinstall Windows, change settings back to their factory defaults and remove all preinstalled apps and programs without removing your personal files. Click Reset to continue.
5. You will be shown the reset progress on the screen. The screen will turn off during the reset process.
6. The screen will turn back on when it is installing Windows. Your PC will restart several times during the reset process.
7. Follow the process until it completes.
8. When your PC has completed the reset process, Windows will have been reset back to its factory default settings without removing your personal files.

perfy

@Easwar thanks for the detailed explanation. As the SSD was totally wiped off, there is no recovery either. So have to create a fresh Windows installation disk and a new SSD to install Windows. All my personal files were in my secondary mechanical HDD, which saved us the hassle of data recovery. Now Windows have been installed. It picked the Windows product key automatically from the system firmware (probably BIOS) and activated it.

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