"Operating System not found"
Discussion
Came to switch my laptop on this morning and got the above message. Strange as everything has been working fine so far and the machine was only used last night and powered down correctly etc. Gone into the BIOS and the machine can see the disk drive OK, can also hear and feel that the drive is spinning.
Anyone care to give me an explanation on this before I toss the thing out of the window? Fortunately, I have made regular back ups - but it will still be PITA if I have to reinstall everything - not to mention lack of confidence in this disk if it is the culprit!
Anyone care to give me an explanation on this before I toss the thing out of the window? Fortunately, I have made regular back ups - but it will still be PITA if I have to reinstall everything - not to mention lack of confidence in this disk if it is the culprit!
Sounds like the bootloader has been lost somehow. Although you don't say which operating system you're using I'll guess it's Windows.
You might have some joy if you boot from the Windows CD, launch the recovery console and use the "fixmbr" command. (But if it causes your disk to catch fire, I didn't suggest this
)
p.s. Well done with the backups, not many people are so careful!
You might have some joy if you boot from the Windows CD, launch the recovery console and use the "fixmbr" command. (But if it causes your disk to catch fire, I didn't suggest this
) p.s. Well done with the backups, not many people are so careful!
Bit of a long shot, but it might be worth checking that the hard disc's connector is properly attached. If only a couple of the contacts on the connector aren't making good contact, it might still be possible for the disc to be visible on the interface and to spin-up without being useable. If that isn't the problem, I'd guess you're on route to rebuilding the machine, possibly with a new hard disc. If you've got a boot CD, you could start up with that and see if the hard disc is working. Failing that, you can get a cable that allows you to plug laptop IDE drives into fullsize IDE sockets provided on workstations.
OK guys - I'm on Windows XP Professional. I have the CD ROM for XP but its not the SP2 version, just the original. I updated the Windows to SP2 over broadband.
Ran the XP disc, pressed R for Recovery console and got the C:> prompt. Assumed that this is the point to type fixmbr but nothing happened. Have I done this right?
I have one of the gadgets to connect the laptop HDD to a full size IDE cable. Just wanted to check though that this would not disrupt the master boot record on the HDD before I did this?
Had the HDD in and out several times to swap in an old HDD and the machine boots up OK from that. Therefore feel confident that the connectors 'should' be good. Like I said, can see the disc in the BIOS alright, so that seems like a Windows problem now.
So, what should I do next?
Ran the XP disc, pressed R for Recovery console and got the C:> prompt. Assumed that this is the point to type fixmbr but nothing happened. Have I done this right?
I have one of the gadgets to connect the laptop HDD to a full size IDE cable. Just wanted to check though that this would not disrupt the master boot record on the HDD before I did this?
Had the HDD in and out several times to swap in an old HDD and the machine boots up OK from that. Therefore feel confident that the connectors 'should' be good. Like I said, can see the disc in the BIOS alright, so that seems like a Windows problem now.
So, what should I do next?
Plotloss said:
Boot from CD, run CHKDSK from the Recovery Console.
The fix switch is different though, its not CHKDSK/F, I think its either /R or /P
CHKDSK/? will tell you for sure though.
The fix switch is different though, its not CHKDSK/F, I think its either /R or /P
CHKDSK/? will tell you for sure though.
OK, out of my depth now. So I run from XP CD, type R for Recovery Console, then at C prompt type "CHKDSK/?" - is that right?
TUS 373 said:
Plotloss said:
Boot from CD, run CHKDSK from the Recovery Console.
The fix switch is different though, its not CHKDSK/F, I think its either /R or /P
CHKDSK/? will tell you for sure though.
The fix switch is different though, its not CHKDSK/F, I think its either /R or /P
CHKDSK/? will tell you for sure though.
OK, out of my depth now. So I run from XP CD, type R for Recovery Console, then at C prompt type "CHKDSK/?" - is that right?
TUS 373 said:
OK guys - I'm on Windows XP Professional. I have the CD ROM for XP but its not the SP2 version, just the original. I updated the Windows to SP2 over broadband.
Ran the XP disc, pressed R for Recovery console and got the C:> prompt. Assumed that this is the point to type fixmbr but nothing happened. Have I done this right?
I have one of the gadgets to connect the laptop HDD to a full size IDE cable. Just wanted to check though that this would not disrupt the master boot record on the HDD before I did this?
Had the HDD in and out several times to swap in an old HDD and the machine boots up OK from that. Therefore feel confident that the connectors 'should' be good. Like I said, can see the disc in the BIOS alright, so that seems like a Windows problem now.
So, what should I do next?
Ran the XP disc, pressed R for Recovery console and got the C:> prompt. Assumed that this is the point to type fixmbr but nothing happened. Have I done this right?
I have one of the gadgets to connect the laptop HDD to a full size IDE cable. Just wanted to check though that this would not disrupt the master boot record on the HDD before I did this?
Had the HDD in and out several times to swap in an old HDD and the machine boots up OK from that. Therefore feel confident that the connectors 'should' be good. Like I said, can see the disc in the BIOS alright, so that seems like a Windows problem now.
So, what should I do next?
Do you have a desktop?
Plug the laptop drive into the desktop as a 2nd drive (use the other IDE connector on the motherboard).
When you have booted into windows check you can see the drive, if not then the file allocation table on the drive is probably corrupt.
TUS 373 said:
Oh no...
When I get the C:> prompt and type CHKDSK/? I got
"This command is not recognised Type HELP for a list of supported commands"
so I typed HELP. Got the list, so tried CHKDSK then got:
"The specified drive is not valid, or there is no disk in the drive."
Next?
When I get the C:> prompt and type CHKDSK/? I got
"This command is not recognised Type HELP for a list of supported commands"
so I typed HELP. Got the list, so tried CHKDSK then got:
"The specified drive is not valid, or there is no disk in the drive."
Next?
Sorry, just checked.
Try:
CHKDSK /r C:
OK -
connected the laptop HDD as slave on my desktop. Drive can be seen by BIOS, can be seen under the hardware in system properties, but no drive visible under 'My Computer' or Disk Manager.
So, do I take it that the TOC is corrupted and the whole kaboodle is FUBAR? Time for a new disk drive (only 8 months old this one).
Oh...also noticed, this HDD seems to have a little rattle in it whe shaken gently. The original one (that this replaced) does not do that.
connected the laptop HDD as slave on my desktop. Drive can be seen by BIOS, can be seen under the hardware in system properties, but no drive visible under 'My Computer' or Disk Manager.
So, do I take it that the TOC is corrupted and the whole kaboodle is FUBAR? Time for a new disk drive (only 8 months old this one).
Oh...also noticed, this HDD seems to have a little rattle in it whe shaken gently. The original one (that this replaced) does not do that.
No - could not get it to work. Just seems to refuse to be able to see the C drive.
Under Device Manager, I right clicked on the disk in question, went to properties, volumes , populate. It reported back that: disk - unreadable, disk - unknown, capacity etc all '0'. I also downloaded a data recovery programme, but it gets stuck because it cannot see that it is NFTS file structure in use. Is that it then? Knackered do you think?
Under Device Manager, I right clicked on the disk in question, went to properties, volumes , populate. It reported back that: disk - unreadable, disk - unknown, capacity etc all '0'. I also downloaded a data recovery programme, but it gets stuck because it cannot see that it is NFTS file structure in use. Is that it then? Knackered do you think?
Thanks very much for your help Plotless - greatly appreciated and you seem to have been on standby all day!!
My desk PC recognises the hard drive type etc, reports the size of it - yet cannot read anything from it all. Am I right in thinking that data about the drive is stored somewhere on it on a chip - so it can give details of itself even if the mechanism has failed? Just seems to be how it is with this one.
Disappointing really. I only got this drive in December, a Hitachi TravelStar that runs at 7200 rpm like in a desktop. Worked a treat while...eh...it worked.
Will wait and see if anyone can give further alternative advice, otherwise I will call the supplier tomorrow and see if I can get a replacement under guarantee.
Thanks again.
My desk PC recognises the hard drive type etc, reports the size of it - yet cannot read anything from it all. Am I right in thinking that data about the drive is stored somewhere on it on a chip - so it can give details of itself even if the mechanism has failed? Just seems to be how it is with this one.
Disappointing really. I only got this drive in December, a Hitachi TravelStar that runs at 7200 rpm like in a desktop. Worked a treat while...eh...it worked.
Will wait and see if anyone can give further alternative advice, otherwise I will call the supplier tomorrow and see if I can get a replacement under guarantee.
Thanks again.
When you boot from CD or floppy, can you see files on the C: drive? If so this suggests that the drive may be OK - in which case the problem may 'just' be that you've lost the master boot record. Traditionally you'd repair this with fdisk/mbr, but I've never had to do this in XP so I don't know if that's still applicable.
Edited to add: not to worry you, but I had one machine with a RAM fault that kept trashing the MBR each time it booted, so there's a possibility that the problem is slightly more sinister.
Edited to add: not to worry you, but I had one machine with a RAM fault that kept trashing the MBR each time it booted, so there's a possibility that the problem is slightly more sinister.
Edited by GreenV8S on Tuesday 27th June 21:57
GreenV8S said:
When you boot from CD or floppy, can you see files on the C: drive? If so this suggests that the drive may be OK - in which case the problem may 'just' be that you've lost the master boot record. Traditionally you'd repair this with fdisk/mbr, but I've never had to do this in XP so I don't know if that's still applicable.
Edited to add: not to worry you, but I had one machine with a RAM fault that kept trashing the MBR each time it booted, so there's a possibility that the problem is slightly more sinister.
Edited to add: not to worry you, but I had one machine with a RAM fault that kept trashing the MBR each time it booted, so there's a possibility that the problem is slightly more sinister.
Edited by GreenV8S on Tuesday 27th June 21:57
Cannot seem to see anything on the disk:
If on the laptop, it won't boot. Using the XP CD, only tried to use Recovery Console - and it cannot see the C drive even though I get a C drive prompt. Does not recognise CHKDSK when looking for C drive.
When connected to desktop - disk is detected as hardware but cannot populate any data about it and Windows does not add it as a drive under My Computer or Disk Manager.
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