Operating system not found

[jimti]

For some reason my lap top has stopped booting up and all I am getting is a line stating "Operating system not found"
I can reformat the hard drive, but would prefer not too.
Is there any way I can search for the operating system manualy?
or does any one have a remedy I can try?

 

[craigyb]

Sounds like the boot block has gone, or its not active as a partition.

if you can boot from a DOS floppy with large disk support, run fdisk to check the partition and that it is active.

Or install windows again in repair mode, it will re-install everything as before and possibly fix the disk.

Good luck

 

[guydewdney]

first off try removing and replacing the hdd... might have worked loose...

does it detect the hdd in the bios screen?

 

[jimti]

first off try removing and replacing the hdd... might have worked loose...

does it detect the hdd in the bios screen?

that was the problem, all ok now, thanks

 

[craigyb]

Cool, nice easy fix. Saves you all the hassle I was proposing.

A colleague of mine brought his beloved laptop into the office claiming is was "completely dead". A quick removal of the battery and re-insertion and "it's alive!"

Craig

 

[jimti]

as all was going well last night I decided to install sp2. What a mistake that was, spent all morning trying to get IE and outlook working again, couldn't download E-Mail or web pages, anyway 45 Minutes on msn help line resulted in un installing sp2.
All is back to normal now

I guess the old saying :- if it ain't broke, don't fix it springs to mind

 

[Ian B Walker]

Just done the SP2 thingy on mine. The automatic download failed so I went and found the stand alone program and installed that. Big download though at 266meg but at least its working.

 

[craigyb]

I put Sp2 on this afternoon, no issues what so ever.

Craig