"No bootable device" error

Hello. I apologize if I have posted this in the incorrect forum.

Just a few hours ago my laptop spontaneously crashed, or so it would
seem, and any attempt to restart it leads to a pitch black screen with
the text "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key".
When I start the laptop, it at first leads to a screen with the word
Compaq in big, bold letters and a plethora of options below, such as
Enable Startup Message, System Information, Startup Check, Change Boot
Device Order, BIOS Setup Options and System Recovery. When selected,
each one performs their respective action to some degree, however it
will eventually return to the above with the No bootable device text. My
laptop also notably beeps briefly when starting up. Has anyone here been
confronted with this problem, and is there any successful method of
which to combat it? Thank you in advance for any and all information. :)

You could try installing a device which will boot. It seems that you hard
drive has died..

the correct name of this hue is "BIOS black" :)

Call your nearest Hewlett-Packard lab or office (they own the Compaq
brand ).
http://www.hp.com

Something tells me this is the best option in your case.

I seem to remember that booting from your Vista DVD, selecting the
"repair" option and letting it scan your system will tell you if the MBR
is corrupt. It then offers you the option of letting it carry out a
repair.

Might be worth trying before buying a new disk and reinstalling from
scratch.

This is not good, i got the same thing except i have a Toshiba
Satellite. Yeah, yeah its foriegn but it works for me. well until now. i
got the "no bootable" bit, too.:mad: Anyways, i have a good bit of
important bytes on my hard drive that i can't just take and sys. recov.
and move on. I bought mine from best buy but the only they can do is
replace it or sys. recov. I don't have any discs with it and i'm broke
so i can't take it to a place like geek squad and hope they fix it. I
had barely enough to buy the laptop in the first place. (I needed it for
college). Normally even i would tell myself to do a sys. recov. but like
i said, i have files on there that, one) i can't find anywhere else, and
two) took a lot of work to obtain or create.:cry: I'm a digi-artist and
also an amatuer draftsman. Please help!! i need a way to at least save
my files if i have to do a sys. recov. Anyone?:confused: