Pavilion boot-up problem -- 'no operating system'

Hi all.

I need help on a problem. I sent my Pavilion notebook off to HP to get a hinge replaced, but I removed my hard drive before I shipped it. The Pavilion is back now, and I've reinstalled my hard drive, but when I try to boot up I get an error message 'operating system not found'.

I've looked around in BIOS Diagnostics, and discovered this: If I try a self test on the primary drive, I get an error message 'diagnostics not supported'. But if I do a self test on the secondary drive, the test runs okay, and inticates that the drive is okay.

My theory: HP temporarily installed a hard drive to test my notebook before sending it back, and my BIOS still thinks that the temporary HP had drive is my primary drive! And my own hard drive has been designated as a 'secondary drive'.

When I look in BIOS boot-up options, there is no hard drive option listed, only CD-ROM, Floppy, and Network Adapter. It's as though BIOS thinks there is no primary hard drive available ...even though MY hard drive is installed!

Can somebody please lead me from this thicket?? (I've tried -- three times!) chatting with an HP tech, but I just can't get them to understand the problem.

Art

 

Maby you knocked around yur hard drive when you took it out.. Causing it to fail?

 

Lite,

No, I handled the hard drive very carefully. Besides, the secondary hard drive self test I ran on it in BIOS said it was okay.

Art

 

So there's an operating system and everything, eh? If your data isn't important, maybe you can just reinstall everything? What happens when you put in a live CD? Does it boot up?

 

There are a handful of companies that partition the drive into a section for diagnostic tools or system restore. Are you sure what you are looking at isn't saying the first partition (Windows & all your data) is dead, and the second (Diagnostic tools) is fine? As Amol said what happens when you put in a bootable disc ?

 

if your BIOS isn't recognizing a HD, it can only be a limited # of things:

1. the HD is not physically connected properly; i.e., it's not seated, the connector isn't snug, etc.

2. the HD is dead; in your situation, i'd say this was unlikely

3. the internal subsystems are not configured correctly; i.e., if jumpers are available, they may be incorrectly set, the BIOS is set to read another device first, etc.

find out which one of the above it is and you'll be good to go.

 

New developments...

When I upgraded to Vista, I had created a set of WinXP recovery disks. I put disk 1 in, and a menu came up. I pushed 'Q' to quit, and the CD turned boot up back over to the hard drive ...and Vista came up normally! All my programs and data are intact, so I think the disk is fine.

Then I tried a re-boot, and I was right back to "Operating System not found" (like I had a floppy in).

With the Pavilion running normally (through use of the WinXP recovery disk again!) I flashed the BIOS (which went fine), and then I checked that the boot options were okay ...and they were.

Strangely, though, my hard drive is not listed on the 'Main' page of the BIOS.

I am really puzzled by this, and do not know how to put it right. But as long as I don't shut down my machine, everything is operating absolutely normally.

(As to jumpers, I'm familiar with their use in desktop machines, but I didn't think they were used in laptop hard drives. Am I wrong?)

Thanks for all the replies.

Art
(a little less stressed now!)

 

So a boot disk loads up your hard drive? So in theory if you put in a bootable disk and tell it to boot from 1st HDD it's going to boot?

 

Amol,
The thing is, I didn't tell it to boot up from the HDD. When I press 'Q' (to abort a re-install of WinXP), a dialog pops up saying "Booting from hard drive", and then Vista launches.

The entire launch has to come from my HDD, because only a bare bones DOS boot occurs from the bootable WinXP recovery disk.

The thing is, how come my HDD isn't listed in the BIOS, and the regular Vista boot can't find my HDD, and yet a minimal DOS boot successfully redirects the boot up to the HDD?

I'm stumped!

 

oh, i think i know what your problem is, you jacked your boot sequence with the XP disc because the loaders for XP and Vista are imcompatible.

if you have a Vista disc, you can boot to a repair menu which will fix your problem.

i had to do it several times when messing around with OSX86

 

The technicians may have flashed your BIOS.

 

It seems like your MBR on your hard drive is fine; and like bc135 said - it does seem like your BIOS has been tampered with. Why don't you flash the BIOS and see if the hard drive option comes up?

 

Do I ever feel like an idiot. I just had a suggestion that I check to see if my HDD was installed in the right bay.

I bought this machine because of the large, clear screen in order to work on photos. I wasn't even aware that it had two HDD bays. In a brain-dead state, I obviously removed my HDD from one bay, and, a month later when I got it back (HP lost it for a while!), re-installed in the other.

Everything, of course, now works just fine; please excuse me now while I go hit my head against a wall for a while.

Art

 

Don't feel bad. We all do such stuff once in awhile.

 

Quite an interesting development there Glad it's working now