Unfortunately I have came across the dreaded 'No Operating System Found', and have tried a few solutions with no luck. Everything seemed to be working fine one day, and I let someone use it (go figure), and upon booting it up later, I found nothing but a flashing cursor in the top left of the screen. I tried re-seating the memory and checking all connections, with no luck. The BIOS still recognizes the HDD and it is still spinning. I booted to an XP disc to run the recovery console, and ran check disk, with no luck, so I tried repairing the MBR, and upon doing that, was presented with the 'No Operating System Found'. I can boot with Knoppix and still view all the contents on my drive, so I know the partition is good and the disc is still in working condition, so I want to get some advice before I go to monkeying around with it and damage it further. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Your Windows XP Partition is Inactive (I don't know how it got set though) You will need to use a Partition Software either in Knoppix or a Partition Software to set the Hard Drive to Active. Hope That Helps. Kute Punk Kay Pee Kay Tee Pren Tiss Kute Punk Kay Pee Kay Tee Pren Tiss

Copy and print this: This procedure fixes up to 5 possible problems. Insert Windows CD, start computer, press a key to boot with it, At the first screen where you are asked if you want to Repair Windows, press R to go to the black screen interface called the Recovery Console. Setup will look for Windows installations. Each one found will start with a number. Type the number, press Enter. If there is only one Windows installation found, press 1, press Enter. (If there is more than one Windows installation found, press the number for the one the computer booted with before, press Enter. Usually that's 1 too, or the one on C:) you will see Password: If there are no asterisks beside password ("stars"; the uppercase of 8 on your keboard) just press Enter. If there are asterisks beside Password, the password is the same one you use as Administator in Windows, then press Enter. Type: FIXMBR (press Enter) (answer Y for Yes) FIXBOOT (Press Enter) (answer Y for Yes) COPY x:\I386\NTLDR C:\ (Press Enter) (should say file copied or similar) COPY x:\I386\NTDETECT.COM C:\ (Press Enter) (answer Y for Yes) (should say file copied or similar) (a space between COPY and x:, and the file name and C:) I'm assuming your Windows installation is on C:. If it isn't, change the COPY lines to the drive letter Windows is on at the end of the line. x is the drive letter of the CD drive the Windows CD is in - usually it's the next one higher than it is in Windows when you boot with the Windows CD. If you're not sure which drive letter that is, type the drive letter you think it might be, followed by a colon, press Enter; then type: dir , press Enter. If the drive letter is correct you will see about 6 files and 5 folders listed , including a \i386 folder . Type: BOOTCFG /rebuild (press Enter) (a space between BOOTCFG and /) (this takes takes a few minutes) 8. At the command prompt, type bootcfg /rebuild, and then press ENTER. This command scans the hard disks of the computer for Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows NT installations, and then displays the results. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to add the Windows installations to the Boot.ini file. For example, follow these steps to add a Windows XP installation to the Boot.ini file: a. When you receive a message that is similar to the following message, press Y: Total Identified Windows Installs: 1 [1] C:\Windows Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All) b. You receive a message that is similar to the following message: Enter Load Identifier (my note - type something or you will see no label when you boot) This is the name of the operating system. When you receive this message, type the name of your operating system, and then press ENTER. This is either Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition. c. You receive a message that is similar to the following: Enter OS Load options When you receive this message, type /fastdetect, and then press ENTER. Note The instructions that appear on your screen may be different, depending on the configuration of your computer. If there was more than one Windows installation detected on your computer, you will now see: [2] D:\Windows (or similar) Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All) Repeat steps a, b, c for all Windows installations found. If you are not sure what to type for Load Identifier, type any text - you can correct that later by editing boot.ini (see My Note: below). If there was only one Windows installation detected on your computer, or if you have done a, b, c for all Windows installations found if there was more than one, continue with these instructions. If any Windows installations are definately not XP or 2000, you don't need to enter anything in step c - just press Enter. 9. Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console. Your computer will restart. DO NOT press a key to boot from the XP CD The updated boot list appears when you receive the "Please select the operating system to start" message. Choose the TOP one. Windows should boot normally. Remove the Windows CD if it does. .... My note: Bootcfg does not delete the existing boot.ini - it adds one or more new entries that are listed before )above) the older ones. You can remove the old entries, at least one of which may now be invalid. Control Panel - System - Advanced - Startup and Recovery - Edit - you MUST maximize the window - delete the entire line(s) below the first line below [operating systems] that were not detected by bootcfg. (e.g. if there only two lines below [operating systems], delete only the lower one) Choose File in the top left corner - Save. If after editing boot.ini there is now only one operating system listed after [operating systems] in boot.ini, after you reboot, your computer will now boot without prompting you to select operating systems.

Just do a repair installation.

"Just do a repair installation." There is no second Repair choice - to Repair your existing Windows installation - when you continue on to Setup if the original HP software installation is on the hard drive. Been there, done that. If he installed Windows from a regular CD, sure, he could try that, but the procedure in response 2 takes only a few minutes once you know how to do it.

Tubes - I guess you're right but take notice that the OP stated his PC is a HP. I doubt he has the required XP CD that could do what you suggested. With only a restoration CD well ... i_Xp/VistaUser

I have no idea whether a single Recovery CD you get with, or make in Windows for, a HP computer would have the ability to run Setup as far as the Recovery Console, but it or something on the hard drive may be able to run it some other way. There's nothing to prevent you from booting a regular XP CD on a computer that has the original brand name software installation on it and running the Recovery Console normally, but as I said, you don't have the second Repair choice that allows you to do a Repair Setup (Repair install) procedure. On the other hand, a lot of people have re-loaded their brand name computers using a regular Windows CD these days.