When I Turn on my laptop...I get the SONY ad,then instead of,going to Windows..I get the message..."Cannot find operating system" on a black screen...I tried the boot disk & It will Boot to the "A"drive...But it can`t locate the drivers,to read the recovery disc...I tried changing the bios...Still no help....Losing files is not a problem..Starting from scratch would be O.K....How can I save my Hard Drive, without,having to send it back to Sony....It`s an older model,no longer under warranty!!.....Thanks for any help..Sperls
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Laptop Unable to Locate Operating System/Hard Drive!!
- Thread starter sperls
- Start date
CitrixEngineer
Technical User
First couple of things I'd look into;
1) Is the Hard disk appearing in the BIOS correctly?
2) Has the IDE cable become detached from the hard disk?
I hope this helps CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk
1) Is the Hard disk appearing in the BIOS correctly?
2) Has the IDE cable become detached from the hard disk?
I hope this helps CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk
You said "I tried the boot disk & It will Boot to the "A"drive...But it can`t locate the drivers,to read the recovery disc..." Did you mean that it can't see the C: drive, or something else?
Assuming you are using Win95/Win98/Win98SE/WinME:
When you boot via a floppy and the OS still cannot find the hard drive - but the BIOS reports that it can - this is the time for the secret 'FDISK /MBR' boot sector rebuild. If the BIOS checks out OK then it can physically see the drive, but the data on the drive that the OS needs to interpret what to do with the disk isn't there. Using FDISK /MBR should help.
BEFORE doing that, however, make sure that you are using the correct floppy, one that was made and matches the same OS that is one the hard drive. Also, before doing this, did you install a boot loader (to select multiple OS's), use Partition Magic or a boot sector-overlay (to enable the computer to see a type of drive it couldn't use before)? If so then FDISK /MBR won't work.
Finally, check other options before using FDISK /MBR. Start FDISK and see if it can see the hard drive, even if it reads no partitions. That means everything is right except the missing data. Your mileage may vary...
Assuming you are using Win95/Win98/Win98SE/WinME:
When you boot via a floppy and the OS still cannot find the hard drive - but the BIOS reports that it can - this is the time for the secret 'FDISK /MBR' boot sector rebuild. If the BIOS checks out OK then it can physically see the drive, but the data on the drive that the OS needs to interpret what to do with the disk isn't there. Using FDISK /MBR should help.
BEFORE doing that, however, make sure that you are using the correct floppy, one that was made and matches the same OS that is one the hard drive. Also, before doing this, did you install a boot loader (to select multiple OS's), use Partition Magic or a boot sector-overlay (to enable the computer to see a type of drive it couldn't use before)? If so then FDISK /MBR won't work.
Finally, check other options before using FDISK /MBR. Start FDISK and see if it can see the hard drive, even if it reads no partitions. That means everything is right except the missing data. Your mileage may vary...
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