Operating system not found

[modcrazee]

About a month ago this message appeared on the screen at start up "Operating system not found on any device". I shut the tower down and tried again and the same message appeared and then retried and everything booted up fine. Now the message has come up again and I can't get the operating system to come on at all. I was going to try and start it in safe mode but I can't even get to that. I was going to get all of my info off the HD so that I could redo my drive but now I can't even get to that. HELP. Is there anyway to get my stuff off of there so that I can start over fresh.

[DaveW]

That's a damn strange error message, normally the BIOS will give you a "No boot device found" or something similar-is it possible this is a virus?

-Dave

[ajmilton]

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq/browse_thread/thread/3fcabb7869fa13ab/823f24622719fbc1?lnk=st&q=operating+system+not+found+on+any+device&rnum=8&hl=en#823f24622719fbc1

pretty good list of what might be wrong and how to fix it on that thread.

first thing i'd do is check that there isn't a floppy in the floppy drive, a cd in the cd drive, and that all of your data and power cables are properly seated. in fact, i'd unplug and re-plug them one at a time to make sure.

dave, i think this is basically the same message, from a different BIOS company.

[Cevinzol]

I think AJ's link covers it.
depending on the age of your machine I'd scan for viruses and check the CMOS battery on the Motherboard.

[nil8]

If you just want your data, get another hard drive, install the same os on it, run that as your boot drive, hook up your old hard drive and pull the data off of it.

[YoungBlood]

What he just said ^^

[Razors Edge]

You're Hardrive is dead. I worked at a pc shop for the past 2 years. When people get massages and **** like this...tehre hardrive is raped.....

My suggestion is buy a new Hardrive...But then again i'm crazy....so don't listlen to me.