Operating System not found error msge.

Dear Geeks,

My Compaq Presario 700 laptop refuses to load its OS (Win XP Home); all I get is the "Operating System not found" error message just after the "Compaq" logo appears.

I pulled the HD and restarted--no difference.

I do not have the Microsoft XP CD, just the 3 recovery CDs that came with the computer.

Hitting the F10 key gets me the BIOS screen, but there's no Tools menu from which to check the HD. I reset BIOS to default while I was in there, but this didn't help.

Could it be something as simple as a dead battery for the CMOS? Any other suggestions?

 

It's probably some sort of file corruption or loss.

Can you use the Recovery CD's and restore the system back to original?

(Sorry, I don't use HP, so I can't outline the procedure, but I imagine it would involve booting from the CD, after setting the Bios)

 

Thanks for the reply!

I did indeed reinstall the OS from the rescue disks that came with the computer, but it took me a few tries--the computer would hang while reading the 2nd or 3rd CD

It seems "normal" now--much better than with the factory-installed OS, which would hang the machine at random moments.

With hindsight, the old OS was probably unstable; over time I'd had to blast out some pretty nasty viruses, trojans and malware, and these might have cumulatively corrupted it in ways I couldn't detect.

Hope this follow-up helps someone else