"Operating system not found" error

TheViewer

New Member
Hi everyone.

On Saturday my laptop died, it now gives the message "Operating System not found". I tried to reinstall Vista from the DVDs, but when I tried this there were no partitions loading up to install Windows to. I had a C drive and a D drive which were hard disk drives, Vista was installed onto C but now they have disappeared.

I know a little about computers but I'm not an expert. I'm assuming that my hard drive has failed, and when I was messing around with settings to try and get Vista to load up I did see the text "No hard drive". But is there any way of recovering the files which were on the hard drive? Or are they lost forever? Can I reinstall Windows? I'm so confused and don't know what to do!

Many thanks!
 

My Computer

Hi everyone.

On Saturday my laptop died, it now gives the message "Operating System not found". I tried to reinstall Vista from the DVDs, but when I tried this there were no partitions loading up to install Windows to. I had a C drive and a D drive which were hard disk drives, Vista was installed onto C but now they have disappeared.

I know a little about computers but I'm not an expert. I'm assuming that my hard drive has failed, and when I was messing around with settings to try and get Vista to load up I did see the text "No hard drive". But is there any way of recovering the files which were on the hard drive? Or are they lost forever? Can I reinstall Windows? I'm so confused and don't know what to do!

Many thanks!

Right the same thing happend to me and i was gutted, I did something un-necerssery and re-installed windows, all you have to do is access the boot options menu when you turn your computer on keep pressing F8 until the boot options menu appears, by using the arrow keys on the keyboard select boot for hard drive (HDD) something like that anyway, please report back on that and if it works then I can tell you the soulution to make it so you do not have to do that every time you turn your computer on,

Thanks
Jamie
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Fujitsu Siemens Notebook
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo
    Memory
    3GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ALBA 15" HDMI TV
    Keyboard
    Trust Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Trust Wireless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    Don't Know (But Slow)
    Other Info
    <b> Dream Computer
    1.5TB Hard Drives (X2) £100
    Water Cooled System
Thanks very much for your quick reply.

I loaded up the Boot Menu (it was F12 on my laptop) and it doesn't look great. This is what the screen says:

My Screen said:
Boot Menu

2. IDE CD: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7540A- (P

<Enter Setup>

Choosing option 2 (not sure where option 1 is ?!?!) just leads to either "Operating System not found" or would just be like booting from the CD/DVD automatically (like reinstalling Vista when the DVDs are in). Enter setup leads to the default screen when I press F2 on startup.

I think the hard disk is dead. When I launch the setup screen (pressing F2) I can scroll across the tabs to get a screen called "Advanced". Near the top of the screen it says:

Setup screen said:
> Hard disk drive {None}
> CD-ROM/DVD-ROM {Optiarc DVD RW}
Considering it says "None" to whether there is a hard disk drive this worries me!

Thanks again for your quick reply. Do you think there is anything given this extra information that I can do to get Vista back and my files?
 

My Computer

Thanks very much for your quick reply.

I loaded up the Boot Menu (it was F12 on my laptop) and it doesn't look great. This is what the screen says:

My Screen said:
Boot Menu

2. IDE CD: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7540A- (P

<Enter Setup>

Choosing option 2 (not sure where option 1 is ?!?!) just leads to either "Operating System not found" or would just be like booting from the CD/DVD automatically (like reinstalling Vista when the DVDs are in). Enter setup leads to the default screen when I press F2 on startup.

I think the hard disk is dead. When I launch the setup screen (pressing F2) I can scroll across the tabs to get a screen called "Advanced". Near the top of the screen it says:

Setup screen said:
> Hard disk drive {None}
> CD-ROM/DVD-ROM {Optiarc DVD RW}
Considering it says "None" to whether there is a hard disk drive this worries me!

Thanks again for your quick reply. Do you think there is anything given this extra information that I can do to get Vista back and my files?

This seems quite strange that the system is not detecting the hard drive, have you tried booting in safe mode?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Fujitsu Siemens Notebook
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo
    Memory
    3GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ALBA 15" HDMI TV
    Keyboard
    Trust Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Trust Wireless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    Don't Know (But Slow)
    Other Info
    <b> Dream Computer
    1.5TB Hard Drives (X2) £100
    Water Cooled System
Seeing as it is a laptop, and those things can get bumped around a bit, it is a possibility that the hard drive died. If it were a desktop I would recommend switching the SATA/IDE port on the motherboard, but since it is not...that doesn't really come into play.

If it isn't showing up at all, and you have gone into the bios to make sure that it is in the boot order (which since the computer was working fine before I am assuming that it is), and you aren't comfortable opening it up yourself (I wouldn't be) then you will probably need to bring/ship it in to get serviced.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz
    Motherboard
    EVGA 780i FTW
    Memory
    G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel
    Graphics Card(s)
    Dual BFG 8800gt OC 512MB in SLI
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 900
    Hard Drives
    WD Caviar Blue 640GB
    PSU
    Antec CP-850 (850 Watts)
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm
    Keyboard
    Razer Lycosa Mirror Ed.
    Mouse
    Razer Deathadder
    Internet Speed
    5MB
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