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Missing Operating System!!

R

Riprorin

Banned
Okay, I know I'm streching the rules, but I'm desperate and TS is completely dead right now. I have kids' pics that aren't backed up...


I was backing up my HD to a Firewire drive using Norton Ghost.

I got everything set up, hit OK and left the room. When I came back the computer was frozen on the shutdown screen.

I did a hard shut down and restarted.

When it starts back up it says missing operating system.

Am I hosed?
 
what OS? reboot again and see if it boots. also... boot off a cd or floppy and see if u can access the contents of ur hd.
 
Originally posted by: Riprorin
Win 98 SE. Tried booting from floppy and CD but no go.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about win98 cause it's been a while since I used it, but is there a repair option when you boot from cd?
 
Most likely no.

Test 1:

Boot from a floppy, cd to c: and see if you can see any files. Try to cd into directories and maybe rename a file or two just to see if you can. If all that goes well, you're not hosed. Just re-install windows over top of your previous install, backup all your data (probably to cd if you can), and then, to be safe, do a reformat.
 
Originally posted by: Riprorin
Win 98 SE. Tried booting from floppy and CD but no go.
Click to expand...


What do you mean you can't boot from the win98cdrom? Change your bios to boot from it and do so. Then backup using dos commands.
 
Originally posted by: Riprorin
Win 98 SE. Tried booting from floppy and CD but no go.
Click to expand...

What do you mean no go?

You probably still have the hard disk set as the first boot option in the bios. If not, then there's something wrong with your IDE I'd guess. If you can't even boot from a floppy...


In that case, your mobo may be hosed, but chances are most of the data on the drive is okay... (if that's any consolation)
 
Originally posted by: Carbonyl
Originally posted by: Riprorin
Win 98 SE. Tried booting from floppy and CD but no go.
Click to expand...


What do you mean you can't boot from the win98cdrom? Change your bios to boot from it and do so. Then backup using dos commands.
Click to expand...

[dr nick] Did you go to hollywood upstairs computer repair college too? [/dr nick]


😀
 
Originally posted by: Riprorin
Win 98 SE. Tried booting from floppy and CD but no go.
Click to expand...

so when u try to access the hd, what does it say? invalid drive? also... after u boot off the cd... go into fdisk and make sure ur partitions are still there. if its not... u got a big problem.
 
I tried changed my BIOS to boot from floppy, put in a start-up disk and and rebooted. I got the missing operating system error.

Same thing when I tried to boot from a CD with the OS.

I tried the HD in another computer and go the same error so it's not the mobo.
 
<edit>
nevermind. sounds like you have deeper problems if this percists on all drives and CD's.

<edit #2>
Actually, you are likely getting the error all from the same place, the HArd drive. When you put in a bootable CD (such as the win98 disk) you may have to change your bios so it tries to read from the cd.
 
Originally posted by: Riprorin
I tried changed my BIOS to boot from floppy, put in a start-up disk and and rebooted. I got the missing operating system error.

Same thing when I tried to boot from a CD with the OS.

I tried the HD in another computer and go the same error so it's not the mobo.
Click to expand...

Your computer's nuttier than squirrel turds dude.

You should still be able to boot from a floppy even if your hard drive is pooched.


When you put the drive in another computer, hook it up as a slave. Boot off that computer's normal drive, and see if you can access any of the files on the slave drive.
 
When you put the drive in another computer, hook it up as a slave. Boot off that computer's normal drive, and see if you can access any of the files on the slave drive.
Click to expand...

After you install AV software 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Riprorin
Okay, I got it to boot to from a McAffee Emergency Rescue Disk.

Do I want to use this utility?
Click to expand...


Probably, if it can see the HDD, but i doubt it can, it seems like your HDD is dead, IBM or WD?


Sorry, that was evil... but if i were you, i would try linux, at many times i have recovered stuff by being able to boot into linux and get it from there...
 
Originally posted by: Riprorin
Looks like I lost my C drive partition. How do I get the data off my D and E drive partions?
Click to expand...

reformat and reinstall windows on the C: drive. then copy stuff off the other two.
 
why don't you go to another computer, plug it into another computer, and rip the files off there?!
 
I recovered everything off my D and E drives. I got the important stuff - everything else can be replaced.

Thanks everyone.

Guess I need to be more careful next time I Ghost my HDD.
 
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