Operating system not found error

hello,

I formated whole hard disk, and again installed Xp, but while booting it shows Operating system not found, any idea....

If i put the XP CD and start the notebook, notebook boots properly..

Please reply soon...

Thanks,
Prasad

 

Not that I know how at the moment, but if you give people more details you have a better chance of getting some answers.

 

i got a sony vaio notebook, while booting its showing no operating system found so i formated the harddisk and reinstalled XP, even after that it is showing same error

but when i reboot with XP CD, system boots properly...y is that..

thanks,
Prasad

 

My first thought is you should check boot order in BIOS. Maybe you have all three options to boot from CD/DVD drive?

 

Vaio which model?

 

PCG-9T2N is the model number facing lot of problems with it

 

Sounds like you may have an issue with the MBR (Master Boot Record).

I have had to use the Win XP Recovery Console to rescue my system from this before after deleting a Linux distro from a dual boot.

It is an easy fix, but I cannot personally give you the instructions.

Try this, or just google "Fix MBR" and "Recovery Console"

http://askbobrankin.com/fix_mbr.html

 

First guess is that your MBR or FAT is bad. (MBR is the Master Boot Record where the HDD stores the initial instructrion for booting, FAT is the Table where all the files are marked).

 

Before starting all of this, make sure there isn't a floppy in the floppy drive. If there is, remove it and try to boot up. If that wasn't the problem, here is a 10 steps approach to fixing this error. Follow one at a time and reboot. If one works, you don't have to go to the next one.

1. First, boot to DOS with a boot disk. (If you don't have one, get one from www.bootdisk.com or make one on any working Windows 98 computer (Start>Control Panel>Add Remove Programs>Windows Setup tab>Startup Disk tab.) Once booted from the floppy, at the a:> prompt type "scanreg /restore" without the quotes and with a space after "scanreg) and hit the ENTER key. Select a date before the problem occurred. Note the space between scanreg and /restore. Then reboot your computer.

2. From a:> type "scandisk" and hit ENTER. Reboot.

3. From a:> type "sys c:" and click ENTER. If successful it will say system transferred. Reboot.

4. From a:> type "fdisk /mbr" and click ENTER. Reboot computer.

5. Delete temporary files. From a:> type "del c:\windows\temp*.*" and click ENTER. Reboot.

6. Delete the swap file. From a:> type "del c:\win386.swp" and click ENTER. Reboot.

7. Perform a System Restore from DOS.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];Q279736

8. Look at your bootlog.txt. From a:> type "c:\windows\bootlog.txt" and click ENTER
If it does not work, then type "a: c:\bootlog.txt". You can look at the last thing listed in log and most likely it is the item that caused Windows not to load. If the file is in windows you can rename it to old from whatever its was before, i.e., exe, txt, dll, etc.

An example of renaming would be to rename windoz.dll to windoz.old you would use
ren c:windows\windoz.dll c:\windows\windoz.old and click ENTER. Note the spaces.

9. As a next to last ditch way to open Windows if all else failed, on the C drive (where I am assuming Windows is installed) there should be a hidden file named system.cb. This is a "backup" system.ini that contains no third party drivers. Copy it to c:\windows and rename it to system.ini. Then see if you can boot up. If you can, you will have to install a bunch of drivers. Including video, sound, scanners, cameras, etc. But you should be able to boot to Windows.

To implement the above, From a:> type "c:" and click ENTER. Next type "cd\windows" and click ENTER. Next type "copy system.cb system.ini" and click ENTER. If it says there is already a file by that name and it will be over written. Click YES.

10. Finally, as a last ditch effort, reinstall windows over itself. Boot up with your Windows CD. If not bootable, boot to DOS with CD ROM support. While in DOS, put in your Windows CD. Type "setup" or "E:\setup" without the quotes and hit ENTER.

If you don't have the Windows CD, the system files may be in the CABS folder. From a:> type "c:\windows\options\cabs\setup" without the quotes and hit ENTER.

 

most likely it's the boot order.

change the order from cd/dvd drive to hard drive by pressing f2 (if it's not f2 then some other f combination other than f10).