HELP!! No operating system found??

thatickschick · #1 July 8th, 2003, 04:42 PM

How do I get a msdos prompt (never done it before)

I know, I know.....this is a really dumb question! .....I'm getting the error message :1962 No operating system found.....Help!!

visualuser · #2 July 8th, 2003, 04:55 PM

I've seen this on dell laptops. I've taken the hard drive out and put back in and it works fine.

Others may have different opinions but that's my experience with this. I've seen it 3 times on Dell Inspiron 7000 Laptops.

twistedcranium · #3 July 8th, 2003, 05:08 PM

Quickest way to get to a dos prompt window in Win98 is...

Start Menu
Run
type in 'cmd'

and there ya go!

**Miz** · #4 July 8th, 2003, 07:29 PM

Before starting all of this, make sure there isn't a floppy in the floppy drive. If there is, remove it and try to boot up. If that wasn't the problem, here is a 10 steps approach to fixing this error. Follow one at a time and reboot. If one works, you don't have to go to the next one.

1. First, boot to DOS with a boot disk. (If you don't have one, get one from www.bootdisk.com or make one on any working Windows 98 computer (Start>Control Panel>Add Remove Programs>Windows Setup tab>Startup Disk tab.) Once booted from the floppy, at the a:> prompt type "scanreg /restore" without the quotes and with a space after "scanreg) and hit the ENTER key. Select a date before the problem occurred. Note the space between scanreg and /restore. Then reboot your computer.

2. From a:> type "scandisk" and hit ENTER. Reboot.

3. From a:> type "sys c:" and click ENTER. If successful it will say system transferred. Reboot.

4. From a:> type "fdisk /mbr" and click ENTER. Reboot computer.

5. Delete temporary files. From a:> type "del c:\windows\temp*.*" and click ENTER. Reboot.

6. Delete the swap file. From a:> type "del c:\win386.swp" and click ENTER. Reboot.

7. Perform a System Restore from DOS.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];Q279736

8. Look at your bootlog.txt. From a:> type "c:\windows\bootlog.txt" and click ENTER
If it does not work, then type "a: c:\bootlog.txt". You can look at the last thing listed in log and most likely it is the item that caused Windows not to load. If the file is in windows you can rename it to old from whatever its was before, i.e., exe, txt, dll, etc.

An example of renaming would be to rename windoz.dll to windoz.old you would use
ren c:windows\windoz.dll c:\windows\windoz.old and click ENTER. Note the spaces.

9. As a next to last ditch way to open Windows if all else failed, on the C drive (where I am assuming Windows is installed) there should be a hidden file named system.cb. This is a "backup" system.ini that contains no third party drivers. Copy it to c:\windows and rename it to system.ini. Then see if you can boot up. If you can, you will have to install a bunch of drivers. Including video, sound, scanners, cameras, etc. But you should be able to boot to Windows.

To implement the above, From a:> type "c:" and click ENTER. Next type "cd\windows" and click ENTER. Next type "copy system.cb system.ini" and click ENTER. If it says there is already a file by that name and it will be over written. Click YES.

10. Finally, as a last ditch effort, reinstall windows over itself. Boot up with your Windows CD. If not bootable, boot to DOS with CD ROM support. While in DOS, put in your Windows CD. Type "setup" or "E:\setup" without the quotes and hit ENTER.

If you don't have the Windows CD, the system files may be in the CABS folder. From a:> type "c:\windows\options\cabs\setup" without the quotes and hit ENTER.

mckaskle · #5 July 8th, 2003, 07:38 PM

Go into bios and make sure your boots are in proper order
1. Removable device
2. Cd rom
3. Hard drive
4. Network or what ever is thers

I hope this helps

thatickschick · #6 July 8th, 2003, 11:06 PM

Nothing I'm doing is getting me anywhere.....Aghhh!!......First off, thanks to those that have posted helpful suggestions (smile)......I think my main problem is, I can't get an A prompt, so I can't get into msdos.....second,....the computer is telling me that there is no operating system........It seems to be in a continuous loop of loading the adaptec bios...then it stops, and tells me there is no operating system.....and back to loading the adaptec bios.......I want to reload 98 SE, but can't get it to boot from the floppy, or the cd......A piece of information that may be of help(which I probably should have mentioned earlier

.....recently I installed a new cd rewritter in the computer (a nero express 5.5), could the computer not be recognizing it?

**jtdoom** · #7 July 8th, 2003, 11:52 PM

hi

it looks like your main BIOS setting for boot order is set to boot from SCSI

now, if you have SCSI hard drives, and you add another device to that ribbon, you probably have to change adaptec BIOS settings for boot device
CTRL + A gets you in the adaptec bios.

or you had a SCSI(-like) controller (like; it could be a highpoint controller card) with IDE devices, and added another SCSI card (an adaptec)
the first PCI device (closest to CPU) is SCSI device with highest priority in the main BIOS
the highpoint (with the hard disk) is not "detected" during boot, so it don't find hard disk (because the other card stole priority)
this case, move order of cards in system

or you mistakenly set main bios to boot from SCSI (if you want to boot from CDROM...) and have IDE hard disk controller on motherboard with your hard disks connected to it, but not selected as second boot device.
the adaptec gets priority (as instructed by BIOS, and when it don't find no hard disk... the IDE cannot take over.

in short,
is it a SCSI system ? use adaptec bios for boot configuration
maybe look at card placement

no SCSI hard disks, but a highpoint (controller card or chipset on mobo) where your hard disks are on?
MAIN bios settings, card placement, plus maybe adaptec configuration to disable the adaptec boot setting

or... whatever..

I reckon you will figure it out now.
let us know what happens, and fire away when you have problems!
I know

the installation flyers that come with cards can be like arabic shorthand translations of a korean txt

thatickschick · #8 July 9th, 2003, 01:40 AM

Slowly but surely I'm making some headway....I disabled the adaptec bios....That stopped it from loading. I'm now able to boot from floppy, but now have another little problem.....the hard drive isn't partitioned. How can I do that in ms-dos?....and yes, I'm now getting the A: prompt.....Woooo Hoooo!!!

**GretaP** · #9 July 9th, 2003, 01:57 AM

Follow the instructions in this tutorial to create partition(s).

thatickschick · #10 July 9th, 2003, 02:23 AM

It's just not my day

booted from boot disk......selected..... the Start computer without CD-ROM support menu option....typed in fdisk and enter. This is what I got.........No fixed disks present.

sorry if this is getting old for all of you....but on the up side....I'm learning a whole bunch!!.......

But, what now?

thatickschick · #11 July 9th, 2003, 07:50 AM

Just wanted to say thanks to all who helped me today!.....The computer is up and running again.

tytyty

**jtdoom** · #12 July 9th, 2003, 10:15 AM

Hi

I wonder what made FDISK (not) seeing the hard disk.

what was the key thing you did to make it work?

thatickschick · #13 July 9th, 2003, 04:47 PM

In answer to your question .....why didn't the IDE see the HD. In an attempt to....... fix/understand/learn.....more about how computers work, I disabled the bios so that it stopped loading....I was then able to get an A: prompt and from there it was all downhill....... I was then able to partition the hard drive, I then enabled the bios, formatted the hard drive, and reloaded 98 SE. Just what I had set out to do in the first place.

tytyty.....to all of you!......I couldn't have done it without you! :cheesy:

thatickschick · #14 July 9th, 2003, 04:48 PM

Oops.......that would be......FDISK see the Hard drive....