Can't Find An Operating System - How To Get Start?
Jan 4, 2005
I just built myself a new computer. I figured that I'd need to install the motherboard software first, then XP. When the computer starts up it says that it can't find an OS. This is because I haven't installed it yet. How do I install it or what process do I need to take?
Ok I feel as if all i had is lost. I was playing a game and I rebooted my computer. When i went to start it it went to the a blank blue screen before the account screen in the beginning of XP . I know i can restore to new but i will have lost so much information that it would take about 3 months to retain it all back. It says it can not find operating system
I started to reformat an old laptop and made it through disc one of my recovery discs. I'm guessing one of my cats knocked the power cord out of the computer. The battery died before disc two could finish. Now when I turn it on it says it can't find the operating system. It was working perfectly fine prior to this, just really slow, and I can see the hard drive is still there through BIOS.
I am sure you will need a HJT log but can't remember how to get one. This computer has been starting up fine but if i walk away I comp back to :1962 no operating system found. Press f1 to repeat boot sequence and when I do that I get a weird graph and more errors. I don;t know where to start. If you advise how to get a log maybe that's where I should begin.
I got back from class today and my computer was frozen. I forced a reboot. When it tries to load windows XP, I get an error message that says: Operating System Not Found Can/Should I load with the boot disks? I CAN NOT loose the info on my hard drive.
Computer has a bad virus and am planning on wiping the drive and re-installing windows. Problem is that I cannot find my key code to validate windows. Is it somewhere on my computer?
OS NameMicrosoft Windows XP Home EditionI have finally been put into the position of a must have win XP...ok...but now seem to be running slow even after defrag seems like a time thing...in that I get that slow movement on some things but not on others...think I have enough memory & a 20gb hard disk I have also run an up to date virus & spybot they all check out OK...I am really lost in the amount of information available on the xp forum...quite good but feel that there must be a smarter place to start looking
I'm having problems with my window XP opening. I have taken my hard drive out and put in an enclosure, and backed it up. Now I'm trying to determine the product key to reinstall it with the rescue disk.
I have some minor glitches in my system. I've been thinking about reformating the HD and reinstalling XP Pro. 2 questions: 1st is; if I back up my HD and then do a restore after reinstalling the os, won't I just restore the glitches I'm trying to get rid of? 2nd question; Since I've never done a reinstall and restore; will all my programs be restored just as if they have been installed (Drivers, programs, etc.); or do I have to reinstall all my programs and then do a restore so I get all the data that changed after they were installed?
The computer I'm writing about is my sister's home-built PC, running XP Home Edition on an Nforce4-A939 motherboard. *May not be verbatim as Windows is installed in Swedish.She tells me that shortly prior to this happening, the computer was transported by car for about 20 minutes, after which she set it up, played Sims for about an hour, downloaded a couple of patches and switched it off (normally). She then restarted it a day later, left it on without using it for about an hour, then switched it off again (normally). When she booted it up again, the above error appeared. She only uses the computer for playing Sims.
Well i got lil problem.. that bothers me.every time i turn my PC on. When windows is starting i get this Black Screen saying the following:Quote: Please select the operating system to start: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Microsoft Windows XP (Original)..For troubleshooting and advanced startup options for windows, press F8 It bothers me that i have to choose, i just want it to start normally. what can i do?
My son has a 3 year old Compaq computer which is running Windows XP home. He had been asking me for a while to reinstall the operating system to get his sister's stuff off of it since she now has a laptop. The computer came with its own recovery system built in, so I did that first. The computer would run the recovery, and then would go to the black background "Welcome to Microsoft Windows" screen with a little 'please wait' under the windows logo flag, and when it would go to the next screen (which would presumably be the beginnings of the start-up area) it would get a black screen with a cursor in the upper left side. (You can't type anything with the cursor, however). So I got in an online chat with HP who said that it sounded like the recover partition had been corrupted and that if I had not made a set of recovery CDs then I needed to order them and run the recovery from the Cds. So I did just that yesterday. The same thing happens. I get to the first start-up screen (black background with Microsoft 'flag' and a 'please wait') and when it goes to the next screen it's a black background with a cursor in the upper left. What is wrong with this computer.
I can still use system restore; but my problem is I can't seem to locate system restore on the start menu, I know that it used to be there. Is there any way to put the icon back on the start menu? Running Window XP Home Edition.
I have an Acer Travelmate 4200 that got a drink spilled on it last night. It spilled all over the keyboard, so we took apart the top section of the keyboard to clean it out and dried it upside down last night to get any remaining liquid out.
Now the computer will not load. The green power light comes on and it acts like it is trying to read the DVD drive but then it does nothing. The fan comes on as well. But no screen or anything else.
I went to install a program last night thati have recieved of a friend(well i thought we were) and now i have lost use of a lot of functions and keep getting security messages pop up on my screen.
So i turn on my computer and it tells me one of my system32 files is currupt and so i couldnt start windows so i put in my xp cd and repair the files and after it did that...it just kept retartsting over and over....then it went to the screen where it says windows could not load properly and this maybe because of a hardware of software change. So i tired "Start Windows Normally" and it still didnt work and now I am on "Safe Mode with Networking"
I have been searching for how to fix my son's computer which comes up with windows system32 config system - Windows could not start b/c the following file is missing or corrupt. He has a Dell and everything I've read seems to give warnings about doing recovery with a Dell. There was no OS CD with it.
Tried to reinstall xp but screen froze at 'select operating system to start'. Now I just have a blank screen with a cursor flashing in the top left side. I tried to boot by pressing F11 but cannot do so either by the cd or the hdd.
I am havinga very big problem with my PC. When I try to start it up normally, I get the following message; "Windows could not start because the following fileis missing or corrupt: WINDOWSSYSTEM32CONFIGSYSTEM. You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair" When I try this, it opens repair console, but then I have to select OS, and when I do this, it just comes up with the previous error. If I try to reinstall it comes up with a blue screen error and crashes.
In a not updated Version of Windows XP you can run (Start-run) "start"command at the Run dialog just typing it, when you update windows andwrite the same "start" into Run dialog Windows shows a error message >Windows cannot find `start`. Make sure you typed the name correctly,and then try again. To search for the file, click the Start button, andthen click Search.If you are in CMD the `start` command works fine but the problem is thein Run dialog windows doesn’t recognize it ?
I'm trying to fix my friends Hp and I usually know what im doing. But here I have no idea what to do. I tried going into the bios to change the boot order to cd to format and I can't. Can anyone tell me what to do.I changed out his hard drive with mine and it does nothing. just posts and goes to a black screen instead of trying to boot and blue screening as it usually do when you change hardrives between two computers.Changed the Ide cables no luck.
I am using Windowa XP Home. When I boot up I am getting the message that the system cannot find the file C:Windowssrvrmsg.exe.I have searched all my drives and it does not exist.
On startup, my PC asks which operating system to load, the current one i`m using now or previous XP install that I obviously buggered up. How do I delete the 1 I don`t use?
My wife has a new notebook with Win XP Pro (SP2). I'd like to add My Recent Documents to the Start Menu, but I've looked everywhere, and I can't find that option.
I have a fresh XP install and still trying to get things back to normal.I want to change where windows explorer opens to.eg. my computer with the drives listed, not starting in my documents which is the default.Its a simple registry change but I cant find it in my notes.
I have XP Home Edition. My problem is that when I try to log into an account (any account) I see the desktop icons, task bar, start button for a second and then suddenly they disappear and I am left with the background. I can not bring up task manager (cntrl+alt+delete) or anything else. I have tried a few things:
1. Ran spyware be gone
2. Ran adaware (got a 'cannot find shell.dll' error after doing this)
3. Tried to using selective startup and disabling startup items (when I reboot it turns it back on)
4. Tried creating a new user account --- problem still occurs.
5. Finally tried a reinstall of XP. Significant to note that during this installation I get an error related to explorer.exe.
The first time I tried to reinstall it aborted the installation. I ran a repair on the programs (from disk that came from Dell with my pc). I then tried the reinstall again....I got further this time but still when it was at the point of installing explorer it through another error and said that the program was not installed.I do not know what to do next!