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Thread: Help Needed with my Laptop Again

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    Help Needed with my Laptop Again

    Help I really don’t know what to do. I switched my laptop on this morning and got a message that read System Operating System Cannot be Found . Tried turning off a couple of times and still nothing.

    Is this a death of a laptop or is it just a case of reloading windows? Why would this suddenly happen?

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    Re: Help Needed with my Laptop Again

    Oh no I've put this in the wrong place - Please could a moderator move to Geeks corner - thanks

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    Re: Help Needed with my Laptop Again

    Quote Originally Posted by Maxine View Post
    Oh no I've put this in the wrong place - Please could a moderator move to Geeks corner - thanks
    I've moved it for you.

    Sounds to me like a problem with your laptop's hard disk, but I'm no expert I'm afraid.
    Love dance, will travel

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    Re: Help Needed with my Laptop Again

    Yes, sounds like it - more details here:
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321626

    Take it to an expert, they may be able to fix it.

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    Re: Help Needed with my Laptop Again

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidY View Post
    I've moved it for you.

    Sounds to me like a problem with your laptop's hard disk, but I'm no expert I'm afraid.
    Thanks for moving it

    Quote Originally Posted by David Bailey View Post
    Yes, sounds like it - more details here:
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321626

    Take it to an expert, they may be able to fix it.
    The only reason I'm asking here first because if it is costly, I don't think it's worth it and my place charge £40 and then the cost of repair which includes £40. It's about 3 years old and this is now the 4th time it has gone wrong. I'm thinking, I may be throwing good money, after bad. Maybe I'd be better investing in a new one.

    What do You both think? It's actually got Vista not XP if that makes any difference?

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    Re: Help Needed with my Laptop Again

    Quote Originally Posted by Maxine View Post
    The only reason I'm asking here first because if it is costly, I don't think it's worth it and my place charge £40 and then the cost of repair which includes £40. It's about 3 years old and this is now the 4th time it has gone wrong. I'm thinking, I may be throwing good money, after bad. Maybe I'd be better investing in a new one.
    What were the previous issues (and fixes)?

    What do You both think? It's actually got Vista not XP if that makes any difference?
    Whether it's XP or Vista, the error message means what it says: it can't find the operating system on the disk.

    This could mean a drive failure (most likely, to be honest), or possibly a virus or localised disk problem. Do you know a friendly techy person who might be able to help at least diagnose? It's the kind of thing which isn't necessarily that difficult, but is much harder to explain how to do (on a laptop you know little about) than it is to actually do it.

    If the drive has failed, to repair the laptop you'd probably need a replacement drive, and you'd then have to reinstall windows. I don't know what someone would charge for this.

    If not, you (or someone you know) might be able to do a windows repair/reinstall. This doesn't take a huge amount of expertise, but it is a bit techy.

    There's also a possibility it's a bios settings issue that's caused it to "lose" the hard drive, in which case you'd need to fix this.

    From what you've written, I assume you're not particularly bothered about saving any data/software on the laptop.

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    Re: Help Needed with my Laptop Again

    Thanks for all your help and advice.

    Unfortunately I don’t have Geeky friends. Most of my other needs are met such as mental health, physical health, legal and accounts but sadly nothing geeky.

    On reflection, I don’t want to spend out on a new hard disk and reloading windows again. That will mean that I would have spent on that laptop the equivalent of buying a new one. Should have listened to Rocky’s original advice and chucked it in the bed the first time it went wrong.

    Now I have to decide what to get next! something more basic this time I think.


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    Re: Help Needed with my Laptop Again

    Since receiving the error, how many times have you rebooted the Laptop? Do you get the identical error each time?

    If possible, take the Laptop to SP with you. There are more than a few geeks in attendance. If you can bring the orignial windows discs with you, that would be helpful..

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    Registered User frodo's Avatar
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    Re: Help Needed with my Laptop Again

    Quote Originally Posted by Maxine View Post
    On reflection, I don’t want to spend out on a new hard disk and reloading windows again. That will mean that I would have spent on that laptop the equivalent of buying a new one.
    I think that is a good decision. Unless the laptop has special features (for example a keyboard you really like), even if it wasn't a lemon there is a decent case for replacing a 3 year old laptop (you get a better operating system / memory is cheaper and you can have more / battery life is better etc).

    You could get someone to look at the old laptop later when the opportunity happens to arise, and keep it as a spare in case the new one needs servicing, or put it on ebay as non working (perhaps best without the hard disk as it may contain confidential data and/or data you might on reflection want).

    (In my experience of this error message the probability of the problem being a physical problem with the hard disk is well under 50% - and the chances of not being able to recover some data are rather lower than that).


    Just one unlikely thing to mention just in case:- USB devices attached / memory cards plugged in / CDs in the drive can sometimes produce that error message.

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