Operating System not found

I am trying to repair an Acer Inspire 4220, with Vista installed. Not sure why but on boot up I get a "Operating System not found" error. Downloaded a Vista recovery disk. The system then run the recovey disk but did not find any windows to repair.

I have removed the HDD and connected it to my desk top.

I was able to recover data from the drive using software as I could not see the drive in my computer, but could using Disk Management.

I then re-formatted the HDD and installed Windows XP, i was then able to check the installation by booting windows from the HDD, all was good.

When I refit the HDD back into my Laptop I still get the same error.

I have also tried a resinstall from CD but it does not load.

In BIOS I can see the HDD and the CD Rom, when selected I always get the "No Operating System" error regardless.

Can only get into BIOS and no further, have looked at forums on net but as of yet not had any success.

Can any please help out

 

The hard drive is going what we call "Tit's up." Time to get a new one.

 

Sounds as if the drive has been re-named.
Does it show up as C: in Disk Management?

 

Drive naming has nothing to do with what the OP is getting. It is because the drive is shot, and ready to dig the grave. The "Operating System Not found" error, means that the MBR (Master Boot Record) is non-recoverable, which is caused by a dying drive.

 

Thanks Brownizs, I am getting a new drive and will give that a go.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

 

Not a windows thing, it is a drive going bad. The best tool out there, is the one that the manufacturers of the drives have avail, not some tool that MS stole the code for, and placed their name on it.

 

Obtained a new hard drive and nothing has changed, still get the "no operating system " error when I boot. Tried to install XP from disk but sounds like the disk cannot be read. When I put in the vista recovery disk in, the drive works and the disk is read.

The new drive is identified in BIOS along with the dvd drive.

Can something in the BIOS be causing the problem?

 

A couple of things.

Why are you installing XP rather than Vista?

When you formatted the old HD did you delete the recovery partition or just format the Windows partition?

If you remove the HD from the laptop and try to boot from the XP CD do you get anything?

[Is the HD SATA or IDE? What version of XP SP1 or SP2?

Do you mean the HD is read/recognized? Or do you mean the CDROM works and the CD is read but the HD is still not seen?

 

I'm installing XP because the we do not have the vista disk and cannot access the recovery.

The HD was totally formatted and then XP was installed onto it, on another computer, but it still will not boot when fitted back to the laptop.

The HD is sata, XP is SP2.

Will try removing hard and booting from cd.

Both the HD and CD are recognised in the BIOS. When trying to boot from XP cd the the drive keeps trying to read disk but nothing happens. This is the same with both, the old and new HD.

 

The reason xp cannot be installed is that xp doesn't natively support Sata drives. You need to have a floppy with the SATA drivers available and press f6 right as the xp install starts. Watch the messages at the bottom of the screen.

 

That is for SCSI and RAID drivers.
SATA is different.

Also, Welcome to Major Geeks, parleyp.

 

Actually it applies to SATA if it is running in AHCI mode. XP does not have native support for this so you have to load the drivers. If the bios is not set in AHCI mode, (Compatible) then you are correct, XP will support is as a PATA drive.

The trade off is convenience vs performance. It is convenient to load but the performance will be that of a PATA drive which is much slower than SATA.

 

I down loaded the XP drivers and made a new boot disk with them included but everything is still the same.

The Win XP cd will not load, the drive sounds like it is trying, but nothing happens, still get the "no operating system" errror.

Tried pulling the HDD and booting (as previously suggested) no change.

I have also tried flashing the BIOS, using bootable USB with Phlash16, but that gets a ROM error and so cannot continue.

All out of ideas now.

 

I'm just thinking out loud.

If you put in the Vista recovery disc can you get a command prompt? I'm wondering if you changed directories "cd D:" or "cd E: or whatever the cdrom drive letter is (using the dir command to figure out what drive you were on by looking for the files contained on the CD). Then once on the drive letter for the CDROM ejecting the Vista CD and inserting the XP CD, could you then run setup by typing setup.exe at the command prompt?