what does it mean when...

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

you start up your computer (or my laptop) and it says "Operating system not found"? I only suspect nothing good will come of this.

[Spriggan]

hehe looks like someone deleted windows off your PC or you got a realy nasty virus.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

I haven't been on the internet for a good 2-3 weeks now on that thing. The stupid freaking thing probably died. I'm so freaking peeved. ARgh

And I kept that thing dang clean. I ran AV software on it plenty of times. As well I got rid of spyware and stuff as was. It was probably during the time my moron freaking roommate used the thing. The idiot. RAUG!

[GorgonlaVacaTremendo]

Wow, that sucks.  That happened to our PC a while ago.  We just completely wiped the memory adn reinstalled windows, AOL and mirosoft office.  It's a lot of work but it should work on your laptop as well.  Then you can at least use it again...

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

Well, that helps me get all that data I lost. Wiping memory, I'd like to know how thats done.

[GorgonlaVacaTremendo]

Honestly, I couldn't tell you.  My dad went through and cleared everything out in some program he had laying about.  I watched for about five minuites and lost interest.  I do know, however, that when he was done our hard drive was *near* completely wiped, so it has to be possible...

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

Kind of ironic though. I just bought a 200 GB hard drive for my desktop a few days ago.

Tried to isntall Windows. It says it can't find a Hard drive. Soooo, hurrah for me.

[Maxwell]

this happens to my computers sometimes, you need a boot-up disc. it's a disc with a copy of the operating system on it, you put it in the computer then it starts up off of the that, once you can use your computer again find out where your operating system went or re-install it from that, anybody who fixes computers should have one, or a computer store.

[JP Dogberry]

To me it sounds like a Hard Drive problem. Your new one may possiby be faulty.

[stacer]

I think his new hard drive is for the desktop and it's the laptop that's having problems. Is that right? Maybe I misunderstood.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

Ahh women, the better listener of the two. Yes stacer, you are correct. I've tried a "Boot Disk." The thing says it can't find a hard drive. Therefore, somewhere, gnomes are dying each time you try and help.

[JP Dogberry]

Well, as I said, it's a hard drive problem. You need a new one.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

yeah, hard drive failure. It can't find the drive, so it can't find the oS. even if you could find the hard drive, it'd probably be something wrong with your hard drive that caused it to not find the OS. The OS does not mysteriously "disappear" or "move."

Now, it may just be that a connection is loose. if it's not under warranty you can crack it open and just reseat all the cables (pull them out and stick them back in). Check the data cable AND the one giving power. If that doesn't work, it's probably a dead piece of hardware. you MAY be able to pay someone to get your data off, but that depends on how far gone it is and how much you're willing to spend.

Doing a format and reinstall should NEVER be your fIRST tech support solution. NEVER. if you can format and reinstall, than the disk is readable and you can get data off at the VERY least.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

Yeah, it makes this new weird sound. A big old clicking. Its probably one of the disks inside the hard drive. And this is a laptop hard drive. Not a desktop hard drive. Its superiorily smaller and vaguely resembles a flat potato, that is rectangular in shape.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

oh, if you're getting chunky noises like that, it is unlikely to be a cable. Still. cable's cheaper than a drive. is it under warranty