Laptop says 'Missing operating system'.Help please.

josha007

Hi all.Hope some people here can help me.I was on my laptop yesterday when suddenly it froze whilst I was just on Mozilla.I turned the laptop off and then on again but on the restart it said 'Missing operating system' and it won't load at all.

I'm not sure what to do and what has actually happened.I didn't do anything out or the ordinary whilst I was on it.Is there anything I can do to fix it?I'm handy on computers but I'm stumped at the moment.

Thanks in advance.Josh

Rossy.

After the bios do you get a blinking white _ in the top left hand corner, then after a few seconds the laptop reports the missing operating system?

Have you got a windows restore disc that you can use to repair any missing files? failing that you may need to do a clean install

kwikbreaks

Sounds like the master boot record has gone awol. Might be a disk failure or could just have been corrupted somehow.

I think you'll need a recovery cd/dvd of some sort to even have a chance fixing it. Have you got one?

josha007

The blinking _ symbol comes on for a fraction then the message comes up.Not sure if there is a recovery disk with the laptop.I'm posting this on behalf of my girlfriend who's at work.Would the recovery disk wipe out what's on the hard drive?

Rossy.

Yes it would wipe all the files, you may have a hard drive failure or windows may have corrupted itself. Either way you can't get the files off without removing the drive and connecting it to another PC as a slave drive and reading it from there

Most laptops do not ship with recovery discs. You have to make them when you first get the machine, 9/10 times on it's first ever boot you'll get a system message stating you need to create them

You'll need to get hold of a OS disc and use the key under the laptop, or contact the laptop vendor and request a disc.

josha007

Rossy.Is it easy to connect the hard drive to somewhere else?Can I just put it in another laptop?I have a hard drive caddy,which already has a hard drive on,but could I take that out and put this one in there?Thanks.

Rossy.

You should be able to

The caddy will need to be a 2.5" caddy, also make sure it's compatible, i.e if the HDD drive is SATA the caddy needs too be the same, or IDE to IDE etc

IDE is a long looking type of connector, SATA is two small connectors, one for datd, the other for powering the drive

Removal is simple.

Flip the laptop over, remove the screws securing it and slide it out

What laptop is it

kwikbreaks

You could leave the disk where it is too.

Download a Ubuntu live distribution (usually in ISO form) burn it to CD and boot from it. Plug in an external USB drive and copy files from the internal hard disk to the USB drive.

Some recovery disks give the option of just repairing the boot record which is most likely all that's needed although the hang could have been caused by the disk failing in which case all the data is gone.

josha007

I can't see on the hard drive if it's a SATA or an ITE one.It's a Seagate hard drive.I think it maybe a SATA,it has 2 'l' shaped connectors that go into the laptop.

It's a HP550 laptop.Has been brilliant for 3 years.

Should this Ubuntu program just load up when the computer starts up?Does it not need an operating system to work?

Rossy.

Yes you can create an image of Ubuntu - Ubuntu is an operating system

Google it, download it, burn it to disc and insert into the laptop dvd drive. You will need to strike a key when the bios first pop's up. it could be F2,F10,F12 etc. You want Boot Device

Failing that it sound's as if you've probably got a SATA HDD, Remove it and connect it to your caddy. connect it to a working comp and see if the HDD register's, if it does then search the drive for whatever files you need and copy onto the working PC

If the drive works in the caddy then it's pretty safe to say the HDD is working fine, and you'll be able to re-use it, but you will need to reinstall an OS

This image is of a SATA connector on the HDD

josha007

If the caddy doesn't work,could I put my hard drive into another laptop?