Operating System not found?

Question

I turned on my computer today to find this lovely message appear. It worked fine last night. However, I have also gotten this message many other times, just restarted, & it reboots with no problem. I've had problems with this computer before, but I've only had this hard drive a couple of years. I haven't kicked it or anything like that recently. I even checked it with my old back-up computer that runs Win '98 that has another hard-drive, but that computer won't read either 2 hard drives right now, so I can't even check it there. I've checked for loose cables, but I don't see any problem, & I can't afford to take it to the shop right now. Any advice? Thanks!

Someone mentioned replacing a cable, but before I went out to a computer store, I thought this was worth a shot. I replaced the old hard-drive ribbon cable with the new original cable that came with my hard drive, & it works fine now. I guess the old one is fried, & maybe that explains why I was receiving those random "OS not found" messages before? Anyway, thanks for the input!

Answer 1

hi if nothing above worked it might be the connection on the mobo which cant be rapaired just helping based on past experience. I had that problrm already when we called technicians he told me that it is the mobo.
CONNECTION INSIDE THE MOBO

Answer 2

Hey,

Don't listen to the previous poster, he's an idiot. If all cables are intact, and you're positive the OS is installed. It's possible your IDE controller (where your cable is connected from your HDD to your motherboard) is fried. If you go into your BIOS, you can find whether or not it's registering in there. If that's the case, you can do one of two things: buy a PCI-IDE adapter (this may run you $30-40) or you can buy a new motherboard.

Regards,

Brandon

edit: After reading the previous posters post, you boot to the repair console and type in fix mbr. This will fix your MBR (master boot record). If you do a repair install, this will take away ALL of your updates that you have recieved, and will take a long time to get back. It will leave everything else intact. I would use this as a last resort.

Answer 3

Go to www.adrdatarecovery.com and click on the link for "No Operating System Found" in the article "7 Most Common Symptoms of Data Lost--what you can do to get it back." It mentions 4 possible causes: (1)your files are damaged; (2) the boot device priority has been changed; (3)the partition table is damaged; and (4) your hard drive was never formatted. The author says trying to recover lost data yourself is NOT recommended because it could only be made worse. Call them at 800-450-9282 or send them an email at [e-mail] and explain your problem.

Answer 4

Ok this happens to both computers intermittently, am I correct?
A very weird problem, so I’ll suggest a weird answer.
Do you have a HAM radio operator or an airport nearby?
Sufficient RFI can screw up a computer especially at boot up.
The solution would be shielding.
I brought a customers computer back to the shop four times till I noticed an antenna several houses away.

Answer 5

Don't mind the ignorant childish answers. Try doing a disck check. Click on My Computer then right click on your local disk. Click on Properties, then go to the Tools tab. Click on Error-checking Check Now. It wont allow you to check for errors while you are logged into Windows, but it will ask if you want it to check on the next restart.

Answer 6

Your MBR (master boot record) is hosed. Try to boot with the O/S installation cd and select repair. It should rebuild windows and leave your info intact.

There are 2 repair options, you do not want the first "repair console" option. You want to select the installation then repair.

Answer 7

The OS has been stolen - report it to the police now