Operating system not found

teenage_Drama

i keep getting this message once again, its a typical problem with my dell computer, probably the 5th time ive gotten this message in 2 yrs time.

the strange thing is that when i start up the computer it says 'Operating system not found' and yes the hardrive is making really weird noises, i started the computer up again and i got through to my desktop which is really weird because when i put my windows xp installation disc into the cd rom drive, and press enter it says 'Setup did not find any hard drives installed on your computer.' And now it keeps saying operating system not found (without the disc)


the settings are as follows:

BIOS VERSION A07
PLUG & PLAY O/S NO
RESET CONFIGURATION DATA NO
DISKETTE CONTROLLER ENABLED


BOOT TIME DIAGNOSTIC SCREEN DISABLED
QUICKBOOT MODE DISABLED


FIRST BOOT DEVICE ATAPI CD-ROM DRIVE
SECOND BOOT DEVICE HARD DRIVE
3RD BOOT DEVICE REMOVABLE DEVICES
4TH BOOT DEVICE NETWORK BOOT

HARD DRIVE BOOTABLE ADD-IN CARD




Please help me sort this out..

Thankyou

devizes18193

sound like a dyeing hard drive to me

squibby

Definitely sounds like a dying/dead hard drive. If you have important data on it, i would leave the PC turned off, and take it to a specialist to get the data taken off. Your local computer repair shop should be able to do this for you

GoofyGAT

Try these steps: "Operating System Not Found" or "Missing operating system" error message when you start your Windows XP-based computer. Good luck, G

teenage_Drama

Thanks for all the replies.

I AM TYPING FROM MY COMPUTER RIGHT NOW! its working for the moment because i unscrewed the CPU and adjusted the wires, i have got floppy discs, is there anything i can do with them so if this happens next time..ill have a backup?