Operating system not found

I have a 3 year old Toshiba Satellite laptop that until now worked perfectly. It is running Windows XP operating system. Now when I boot up I get a blackscreen that simply says - Operating system not found - A friend of mine says he thinks he saw a post about this recently. Anyone know of a fix for this? Many thanks if you do!!!!!!

Dan

 

>> Re: Operating system not found Forthought <<

Hi Dan,

Try this Microsoft Help & Support link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321626

"Operating System Not Found" or "Missing operating system" error message when you start your Windows XP-based computer

Good Luck

 

Intuitively, this means that the computer cannot find the operating system files needed to launch Windows.

This means you either have a problem reading the hard drive, or the contents of the hard drive have become corrupted. Let's rule out the hard drive, as that should be easiest.

Does BIOS detect the hard drive? You can check by press the the key(s) indicated on the VERY first screen after powering on the system. This is sometimes called Setup. Typically, the button to press is delete, or a function key, but the first screen will tell you which it is for certain.

Once in BIOS (aka Setup), we want to look for IDE or SATA listings. Look around in the menus, and you will find what I mean. Does this have a hard drive listed next to it? If not, I would suspect the connection has come loose, and you should reset it.

Let us know how it goes!

EDIT: Sorry, Compuable - ya beat me to the punch!

 

Turns out I had an external hard drive hooked last night doing backups and must have shot it down improperly. It was looking for the OS in the wrong spot. Did a system restore point and now all is working fine. Thanks for all your help.

Dan

 

To all those of you answering this thread: When I started this thread, I hadn't takien the hard drive from the WINDOWS Me computer out.
SO, I decided to remove the HD and install it in my good computer, my other Toshiba computer, I was able to format the drive, install every software I had and more, and run it perfectly on my second Toshiba computer. So discard the hard drive theory.
Then, I reloaded Me, and Xp on it (they worked fine). The Hard Drive worked perfectly. However, when I install it back on its original Toshiba Satellite Me Operating system computer, with Me or XP <> ahaaaaaa>the error message still coma up<again>Operating SYSTEM NOT FOUND (Black Screen)!
Now, I have taken the computer apart, and check the connections<>They seem to be fine, but the problem remains. I remember going in the DIR the last day it was working perfectloy, and accidentally delelting a file<Which? Heck if I know<>I just saw the thing do the David Copperfield thing.
How do I find out which files should the DIR should have to compare and verify the integrety of the files that should be in the DIR window?

 

Are both of these machines EXACTLY the same? If you put the drive back in the machine you installed the operating systems on, does it boot OK?