Solved operating system not found error message

angiesluck · May 31, 2011

my son switched on his laptop and got the error message.....I tried to press F8 but still says operating system not found....pressed F2 and it shows the BIOS Information with correct processsor and CPU Type and the time is running correctly......I checked to see if any connections loose...left battery off for a while but nothing......Any ideas as to why this would suddenly come up as not had any changes made to laptop for a good while and he was using it fine before he went out today....weird

richc46 · May 31, 2011

The two most obvious answers would be that there is a DVD in the drive, which would prevent normal boot
The second is that the Hard drive has failed.
There are of course other possiblities, but those are the first two that come to mind.
There are of course many other possiblities , a few are:
MBR has become corrupt
The partion has become corrupt. This will require data recovery software.

I can solve this for you but my solution may lose all your stuff
Do you have stuff you want to save?

Patonb · May 31, 2011

To add to rich, get a *nix livecd, like ubuntu, and get all your/his important files off it using a second partion or usb drive.

richc46 · May 31, 2011

TY Patonb
That would have been my suggestion if there is stuff to save
Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer - How-To Geek

angiesluck · Jun 2, 2011

I downloaded the cd and put into computer but when I go into Places then into Computer as it suggests on website all it shows up is Generic-Multi-Card and File System and nothing else so not sure what to do

richc46 · Jun 2, 2011

Sorry that is not suppose to happen. You are suppose to see what is shown in the article that was given in my post. Dont know where to go from here.

Patonb · Jun 2, 2011

eeeeeeeek

It means that Ubuntu couldn't auto detect your drive. May be due to a few reasons...... Worse case is the drives Bullocked up.

Go through the guide and use the fdisk -I command. It'll scan and see if the drives there. Kind of like disk management.

Now you may also want to open the case up and double check the drive hasn't accidently unplugged itself.

Try out those, but on a brite note... Its just a drive issue... Your hardwares still works

angiesluck · Jun 2, 2011

I just run the fdisk command as u say and it just comes up with

Usage:
fdisk [options] <disk> change partition table
fdisk [options] -l <disk> list partition table (s)
fdisk - s <partition> give partition size (s) in blocks

Options:
-b <size> sector size (512, 1024, 2048 or 4096)
-c switch off DOS-compatible mode
-h print help
-u <size> give sizes in sectors instead of cylinders
-v print version
-c <numbers> specify the number of cylinders
-h <numbers> specify the number of heads
-s <numbers> specify the number of sectors per track

angiesluck · Jun 2, 2011

right....I decided to put in the recovery utility disc.....came up with language selection....done.....next on clicking ok it came up with a message saying ERROR: IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0 The device is not ready.........so I pressed ok....came back with RecoGUI...Hard disk #0 is not accessible or bad RAID configuration....pressed ok click next then came back with....
Checking for HDD1....
HDD1 not found....
Try to remove all letter from potential partitions on HDD 0...
Try to remove all letters from potential partitions on HDD 1...

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.0.6000
Copyright <C> 1999-2007 Microsoft Corporation
On computer: MINWINPC

Disk 0 is not the selected disk

DiskPart was unable to clean the disk
The data on this disk may be unrecoverable
Error: DiskPart failed
Press any key to continue...

Great...so what does this mean......hard drive gone caput!!

richc46 · Jun 2, 2011

May be
Take a hard drive test that is truly reliable

Test Hard Drive HD Diagnostic or this test www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Patonb · Jun 2, 2011

Sorry Angie, it was suppsose to be fdisk -L not I.

angiesluck · Jun 2, 2011

I ran the above what you said Rich and it came back with no hard drive found :mad:

arrghhhh what the heck has gone on and for no reason whatsoever...looks like I will have to order a new harddrive.....still cannot comprehend why this happened and with no warning at all

angiesluck · Jun 2, 2011

what is jumper setting?

richc46 · Jun 2, 2011

angiesluck said:
I ran the above what you said Rich and it came back with no hard drive found arrghhhh what the heck has gone on and for no reason whatsoever...looks like I will have to order a new harddrive.....still cannot comprehend why this happened and with no warning at all

That is why people are told, always back up. Hard drive can go without warning. If there is a warning, it may be a ticking sound.

angiesluck · Jun 2, 2011

humm thanks for that Rich

... .....:D

Well fortunately he said he has not got anything of importance on it so even if I did recovery it would all be erased anyhow....so just have to fork out for a new harddrive....found one on ebay uk for £37.00 so thinks me will order that

Patonb · Jun 2, 2011

Becareful, as not all hard drives are made to run as the main drive.

Theses are usually cheaper, but they are slower, which slows wibdows and programs noticably.
Theyre usually called "Green" or storage drives.

Aslso, I'd not buy from ebay....

Scan.co.uk has many affordable models... I'd not trust a hard drive off ebay
Scan.co.uk: Internal Hard Drive, Hard Disk Drive, HDD, Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung Hard Drive

angiesluck · Jun 3, 2011

Thanks Patonb,

I checked on that website and the same hard drive on ebay which I found (from a Top-rated seller) is the same one (Samsung) on the scan.co.uk site....thats perhaps where they get em from maybe and same price unless its the same company!!......I only ever buy from Top-rated sellers as I know there is some dodgy ones out there, cheers for that website anyway.....I shall make a note

Patonb · Jun 3, 2011

Theres also overclockers.co.uk

Those 2 are my suggest a part online shops for the UK.

angiesluck · Jun 3, 2011

thxs

richc46 · Jun 3, 2011

We both wish you the best of luck

Solved operating system not found error message

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer