Missing Operating System/Disk Error

unknown_786

After shutting down my laptop as usual, i turned it back on the next day to be greeted by the following message:

"Non-System disk or disk error replace and stike any key when ready".

I have spoken to HP tech support, and have tried everything they have suggested...including trying a HDD self-test check (which it wouldnt let me do), restoring windows (to which I was told there was no hard drive!) and even removing the harddrive, blowing it..and putting it back in!

I then started getting a message saying "Missing Operating System"...and now I get a mixture of both messages whenever I switch the laptop on. HP have said they will send me a new HDD for free...but the problem is i don't want 2 lose my data (and i hadnt backed it up...i know..stupid).

Any help would be much appreciated...and im sorry this is so long!

Regards,

Unknown

Greensprout

I had a similar problem on a PC, althought the HD wouldn't boot I could run it as a secondary drive and access the files..

Worth a try..

unknown_786

Thanks..but how do I go about doing that? I have thought about taking out the HDD...and getting it turned into an external HDD and trying to open it on my pc..is that what u mean? I have contacted the company whom i got the laptop off and they said they can do this for £99!!but i dont wanna pay £99

Zoom_3

Hi unknown

Yeah thats exactly what greensprout means. You can take the hard drive out and connect it to a normal pc if you have the correct laptop to IDE cable lead. This will then let you access all your files that you don't want to lose. In all honesty though your hard drive has crashed. What you could try doing ti fix this is to look through the disks you got with the laptop, one of them should be a recovery disk. This will try and fix the problem if you put it in on startup.

Failing that I would suggest you re-install your OS onto your laptop.

If you have problems doing this, there are very good FREE guides on the internet that can guide you through this process depending on your OS. Give the recovery a try and then get back to me if you need any help.

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