My computer cannot bootup. The message "Operating system not found. Press any key to try again." I cannot boot into safe mode either. Any help is appreciated!

Jetsticks, sounds to me like if the OS exists, it is corrupted. A recovery disk comes to mind. Do you have the original CD? Use that. Another machine - make recovery disk?
HTH.
Ed in Texas.

That message may occur if the CMOS battery is weak and the hard drive settings have been lost or are incorrect.

Confusion reigns

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Well, I'm unable to boot up in safe mode with any type of recovery CD or boot disk. I can get to DOS and try and run FDISK but I get a message that says: "Hard disk not found." I also get some messages that say womething to the fact that there no disks present. Is my hard drive shot? Is it worth replacing? Can I ever restore my files and pics on the hard drive?

'No fixed disks present' indicates that your hard drive is not recognized by the computer.

Either the drive has failed, or it is incorrectly listed in the CMOS setup, which can be caused by a bad battery. You may also want to ensure that all cables to the drive are 'snug'.

If it has failed, file recovery is problematic.

I'm just looking for clues at the scene of the crime

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Ok. The cables are all snug. How do I check the CMOS settings if I can't get into the computer? How do I check the battery?I'm running out of ideas.

The CMOS is the computer 'setup'. You should see instructions onscreen at the start - usually the 'del' key, but it depends on the manufacturer of the BIOS (Phoenix, AMI, etc)

This is available before the OS loads - or even if there is no OS or hard drive.

If you're able to reset the hard drive's entry in the CMOS, only to lose the drive's settings (time too) after powering off, that likely means a weak battery.

If you cannot get the CMOS to detect the drive, could very well mean the drive is done.

fyi (from response #3) - all a bootdisk does is get you to DOS - that's all it's supposed to do, you won't be able to run Windows in any mode from a normal bootdisk.

Confusion reigns

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Thanks All. I've been able to get into the computer somewhat by using a start up disk and a recovery disk. I can go to settings and the time is still correct. I guess I can assume that the battery is not dead or weak. I probably should have prefaced my delemna earlier by telling you that for the past few weeks after turning the computer on, I've had to hit F2 to load up windows. I would get a prompt saying hit F2 to load windows or F10 to enter setup. I guess my computer was trying to tell me something...but I wouldn't listen.

I still cannot get into Windows ME though. I cannot format C: because I keep getting errors that tell me that it cannot find C: I'm almost to the point where I'm either going to let someone with more knowledge than me (that would be any 4th grader and up) or I'm going to break down and by another. I have many files and bookmarks that I'm going to lose though and I'm trying to stop that. Any help is still appreciated.

Does sound very much like the drive is struggling (but losing). You can attempt to backup your files from DOS, but this can be a bit tricky, even if you are familiar, due to the loss of Long File Names, even if you use a graphical DOS based file manager.

If you get a new main drive, you can always try connecting the old one as Primary Slave or Secondary Slave or Master and see if you can salvage anything using the friendly Windows interface. You may be lucky enough to grab the important files anyways - but if the CMOS won't recognize the drive, then that won't be an option.

Data recovery requires some pretty good software and/or experts

Those people that think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do

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Thanks for all the help. I'll post back later on what I did and what happened if anyone cares.

Jetsticks

Sure, hope you can rescue some files at least.

Good luck

Those people that think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do

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Jet, you might try reinstalling your operating system on the hard drive as if it were a new empty drive. The ME asks during install if you want to keep files and settings on the computer or go over them, so if you say KEEP settings, you just might save your files.My one drive had "missing" drive letter but I ingored it and loaded XP anyway, and somehow it found the drive letter and installed.

I couldn't do that because it wouldn't even recognize the Windows ME CD. I've since had some IT people check it out and they have told me that my hard drive is dead. I guess I learned a valuable lesson about backing up important files and stuff!