Laptop says 'Missing operating system'.Help please.

Rossy.

josha007 wrote: »

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

Yeah but there is no point.

If it's faulty it won't boot, and if the OS is corrupted then another pc won't boot either

I'd start with the caddy first. If it register's then the HDD should be fine and will need a re-install of Windows. (copy important files first!)

If it doesn't register then the drive is probably nackered, you'll need a new HDD (250GB is roughly £60+) and a copy of Windows

josha007

Right.The caddy is 3'5 and only holds ITE drives so that's put of the window.I'll try getting the Ubuntu program.

If I put the hard drive in another laptop,will it cause that laptop to breakdown even after I've taken my harddrive back out of it?

Rossy.

You can do that, but my opinion is that i wouldn't bother personally

Do you have SATA cables and a desktop PC that you could use?

If you do, you could connect the drive to either the existing desktop SATA cables, or add it on by connecting the Laptop HDD to a SATA cable, then plugging it into the desktop's motherboard


Try and download Ubuntu first, burn it to a disc, install

I'd choose to install next to windows so it creats a dual boot system. That way it won't overwrite your files. If you choose a clean install you'll loose everything on the drive

In all honesty mate, if the drive is nackered, you'll need a new one and you'll loose the files anyway

stilltheone

Some strange advice on this thread. Hold your horses!

Don't install anything. Is the OS Vista or Windows 7?

stilltheone

Let's see if he comes back to the thread before doing anything. :eek:

kwikbreaks

Yes no point trying to install Ubuntu - download a LIVE distro as I originally stipulated then burn the ISO to CD and boot from it. If your current disk is readable you will be able to read it. You only need go removing the disk if it is definitely broken.

RussJK

Rossy. wrote: »

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

Actually there are bootable discs for just about every contingency.

Any bootable disc with a file manager will allow backup of uncorrupted files (e.g. any Linux LiveCD, or Dr Web LiveCD):
http://www.ubuntu.com/download
http://www.freedrweb.com/livecd/?lng=en

Any system rescue CD with a file recovery tool such as Testdisk or Partition Wizard will let him attempt recovery of files or repair the partitions, repair MBR, etc from the affected computer:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
http://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html
http://www.ubcd4win.com/
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

Also the OS specific repair disk:
Windows 7:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/
Windows Vista:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/
Windows XP:
http://www.thecomputerparamedic.com/files/rc.iso

For bootable antivirus rescue disks, there are quite a few (probably not relevant to the thread though):
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/41653210#Comment_41653210

josha007

Lol.I'm gone for an hour and this thread has gone mental.

The laptop is running Vista.I've downloaded the Ubuntu iso image onto a cd.Shall I put this into the laptop Cd drive and boot the computer up?

Do I go to boot device menu when the laptop starts up and select optical drive?

Hope I'm making sense.

RussJK

josha007 wrote: »

The laptop is running Vista.I've downloaded the Ubuntu iso image onto a cd.Shall I put this into the laptop Cd drive and boot the computer up? Do I go to boot device menu when the laptop starts up and select optical drive?
Hope I'm making sense.

Yes, yes, and yes you are

stilltheone

josha007 wrote: »

Lol.I'm gone for an hour and this thread has gone mental.

The laptop is running Vista.I've downloaded the Ubuntu iso image onto a cd.Shall I put this into the laptop Cd drive and boot the computer up?

Do I go to boot device menu when the laptop starts up and select optical drive?

Hope I'm making sense.

You can, but do not install the OS. Just choose to Try it and then use Ubuntu in order to save your important data.


Before you do this I would remove any and all peripherals and then try to re-boot again.