no operating system found

ok.. so i am trying to help my aunt fix her computer it is an hp pavillion a347x she turned it on and gets the message No Opertating System Found. She has lots of pictures on this computer and would like to be able to save them if at all possible. Anyone have any idea how to fix this problem? Thanks in advance

 

It's possible the hard drive may be damaged, but there are other causes for the message, too. Here is the MS page that deals with that prob with XP as the OS.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321626

 

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35246

 

not sure what i should do with this one.. i cant get the system to load let alone download anything...

 

Dont do a thing with it hehe. I posted it in the wrong thread. Sorry

 

Chances are the hard drive has crashed Enter the BIOS by pressing F1 or F2 upon powering up. You can usually press F10 in the BIOS to load the "fail-safe" default values. If it's not F10, look around for an option to load these values. Be sure to save the changes, exit and reboot. If you get the same message, enter the BIOS again and look for IDE devices. If no hard drive is listed, then it's dead. If it is listed, it's at least not dead and it may be a simple corrupt file or messed up boot sector or master boot record. You'll need your XP CD to follow the directions shown at these links, but they offer helpful info for your situation:
http://icrontic.com/articles/repair_windows_xp
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314081/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058/en-us (look for fixboot and fixmbr)
You'll also want to find out who made your hard drive (Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital, etc) and go to their web site and download and run their diagnostic tool to see if the drive is healthy (or somewhat healthy). Most of these tools also offer the option to repair the drive if problems are found. Definitely worth the free download
Hopefully this helps! Good luck!

hd2k