Missing Operating System when I turn on my laptop..

Jolicloud February 14, 2012 at 07:21:49

You have picked up a "nasty", go into Safe Mode and attempt to System Restore back several days... Googling is quicker than waiting for an answer....

THX 1138 February 14, 2012 at 09:12:27

Time to get out the recovery discs and reload your OS. If your system didn't come with recovery discs, then the recovery software may be on a partition. Your manual will tell you how.

riider February 14, 2012 at 13:29:03

"Time to get out the recovery discs and reload your OS" Hopefully you made the recovery disks? It was one of the 1st things you should have done after getting your new laptop.

XpUser4Real February 14, 2012 at 14:59:08

Data Recovery bombarded me with loads of critical errors to fix Which data recovery software was that? Some HELP in posting on Computing.net plus free progs and instructions 7 Medals

Fingers February 14, 2012 at 20:34:02

Probably one of those online sites or an add for one on an otherwise legit sites... First try the Safe Mode/ System Restore. Second if you made a Repair Disk when you got the system, use that to boot to and try first try a Start Up Repair, and Then try a System Restore from the Repair Disk (it can access your restore points and perform the restore even of the you cannot get to Safe Mode or the built in restore feature was corrupted). If you did not make the repair disk, you can make it from another Windows 7 machine as long as both are 32bit OR 64bit and use that. Third do the factory restore using your recovery partition or recovery disk set. Note that everything you have stored and all programs and updates you added will be lost this way, but you will be running again (for free!!). Hopefully you have a back up of all important files so you can restore them later. If there is anything you absolutely need to recover (files, not programs) from the hard drive, you need to do this BEFORE you do the factory restore, the best way would be to make a Live Linux CD/DVD (Puppy Linux or other) on another machine and boot to it (not install) to access your hard drive and copy your files to a flash drive or CD. When you are back up and running and all settings are like you want them, take a few steps to protect yourself for the future: Make a Repair Disk Make a Recovery Disk Set Make a System Image to an external hard drive (use back up features) Make back up of your personal files and settings (usually default back up settings are fine for most) Make a 'Password Recovery Disk' onto your Flash Drive Make a copy of your most important files onto CD or DVD media AND NEVER click on anything that pretends it will check, fix, or speed up your computer for you, the are ALL scams (They should be banned from this site, but they are not). You have to be a little bit crazy to keep you from going insane.

THX 1138 February 15, 2012 at 13:28:06

Fingers & Jolicloud, he mentions in his first post that he gets a Missing Operating System message so Safe Mode isn't going to be available.

Fingers has it going on but would help if we knew the make and model of your PC. You have a recovery partition and some have built in recovery tools that can be run from the parttion. Knowing the make and model will allow us to research whats available in your model. Some you can even make your recovery disk from the recovery partition. You may try tapping F11 on boot and see if you get a boot menu as that is common but it can be any key.