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"operating system not found" black screen on noteb

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Mr Totomolo

Rocker

Joined: June 21, 2008
Posts: 702
Location: Shanghai & Taipei
Status: Offline

Posted: Aug 21, 2008 - 02:21 PM
Post subject: "operating system not found" black screen on noteb

Hi all,

On one of my notebooks running XP pro, suddenly this morning, I got worse than the death blue screen.
Black screen with a single sentence" Operating system not found"

I removed the HDD and plugged it as an external USB drive on another notebook, and all my files are here, all clean, all readable (fortunately, so first thing first, I have saved all my stuff on another drive).

I checked by googling the question online, and found in microsoft support, that it seems I lost or got a malformed MBR (master boot record).
I found some free utilities online to try to repair this file and copied it on a USB bootable key, but when I go to the BIOS, the computer keeps asking me only either a floppy (which I cant even remember how long I did not use one, I evendont have a single FDD for over 8 years I think) or a CD-rom, but it still doesnt work.

The programs are all here, even Windshit XP...and the physical HDD is not damaged...just the NB cannot start coz it cant find the MBR...
Any idea ? I am not in Shanghai now..
Of course, if I cant fix it, I will bring it to Shanghai to repair end August.

Tks in advance for any hints you may have

computersolutions

FooJay

Joined: July 02, 2006
Posts: 1785
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline

Posted: Aug 21, 2008 - 02:49 PM

fdisk /mbr

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Mr Totomolo

Rocker

Joined: June 21, 2008
Posts: 702
Location: Shanghai & Taipei
Status: Offline

Posted: Aug 21, 2008 - 02:55 PM

tks a lot for fast reply.
Where do I copy the MBR from, onto the FDD?
I dont have utilitydisk from the notebook anymore, already 4 years old
Can I create an MBR from the XP PRO CD-rom ?
If yes, I will go buy a box of FDD.
Tks in advance, Lawrence... dont know you, but I have seen often you are so helpful.
Will contact you also again for paid work to you, when I am back in Sh for other machines I have in SH

mat

Board Royalty

Joined: Apr 26, 2004
Posts: 6973
Location: Loooooooooooose!
Status: Offline

Posted: Aug 21, 2008 - 03:03 PM

Quote:

Black screen with a single sentence" Operating system not found"

that can't be good.

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Taikonaut

Lurker

Joined: July 03, 2008
Posts: 31

Status: Offline

Posted: Aug 21, 2008 - 03:19 PM

Set first boot device to cd/dvd in bios.
Put in XP-Install Disc
There should be a utility that you can select.
Or since you have all your data anyway, format and reinstall.

computersolutions

FooJay

Joined: July 02, 2006
Posts: 1785
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline

Posted: Aug 21, 2008 - 03:54 PM

Don't need to copy it, just boot from another disk do fdisk /mbr
It will fix it.

If you have access to CD, then suggest download Hiren boot cd from one of the torrent sites.
That has a bootable NTFS or DOS disk.

Or just plug it into your other computer, shell to dos, go to the drive in question. Eg if its E: when you plug it in USB do

start / run /cmd
e:
fdisk /mbr

exit

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Mr Totomolo

Rocker

Joined: June 21, 2008
Posts: 702
Location: Shanghai & Taipei
Status: Offline

Posted: Aug 21, 2008 - 04:05 PM

Quote:

Or just plug it into your other computer, shell to dos, go to the drive in question. Eg if itsE: when you plug it in USB do
start / run /cmd
e:
fdisk /mbr
exit

A million tks, Man.. I was dumb.... sorry, computers is just a side hobby...but yes, just plugging the poor HDD with the external USB IC and plug, so easy... (luckily, the poor HDD has exactly same format and pins as my other external USB HDD 100 GB)
Many tks once again...

I guess this MBR file got damaged becoz too many restart... Tks