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trixxie62

5 Posts

58730

December 22nd, 2007 16:00

operating system not found ... error in loading operating system ...so now what do i do?

 
a friend of mine just gave me a laptop they were going to toss out they handed me the laptop  with two hard drives and said good luck. nice right.
they thought they had a hard drive issue so they went and bought a new one and that one does the same.
 
i put in one hard drive and and it goes to this screen
says operating system not found error loading operating system i tried to set bios back to default but i still get this so i tried the second hard drive given... same thing.
i have no clue what windows was in it. i am guessing its95 as the sticker on it says or 98
 i do have a windows 98 update cd...i have a windows me cdrom i also have an xp cdrom... nothing works. i tried them all and it still ends up on the screen above.
 
i was informed on another forum that 95 would be my limit since the laptop is so old. which does not matter to me i need want it for wordpad and small tasks nothing major.
 
if it matters the laptop is a dell latitude LM
 
 
when i got in to the bios this is what i have. 
 
 
 on the boot sequence the only options are hard disk only and  diskette first. which i have it set on on both with no luck.  it says the diskette A not installed... there is only a cd rom. is this just labeled as the diskette? the the cd does attempt to start up you can hear it.
 
 i have tried hitting F8 to choose the path and that doesnt work either on all my other  computers in the bios it gives me choices for cdrom and disk drive not  the diskette. 
 
 
 is there a way i can get to a part of dos where i can type in commands?  after the error loading operating system it just beeps at me if i try to type anything.
is there a way to test the harddrives on a desktop computer? to make sure that the new one hasnt been damaged due to laying around for a long time?
 
any help would be greatly appreciated because i am out of ideas! :) thank you in advance ~tristynn~


Message Edited by trixxie62 on 12-22-2007 02:33 PM

C3PO5

2.7K Posts

December 22nd, 2007 16:00

Hi
Where it says boot sequence diskette first Chang that to c:\ hard drive first !!
If you Look it says diskette A not installed it might be trying to boot to
floppy drive that is not there !
And new hard drive has to have an OS on it before it will boot that is why
it says no OS found ! 
Good Luck 

trixxie62

5 Posts

December 22nd, 2007 17:00

the only thing it will let me change it to is hard disk and diskette.
when i change it to hard disk only it then tells me hard disk drive C: 2167 MB
when i save  it reboots and then does the same thing operating system not found.
 
 
 
 

trixxie62

5 Posts

December 22nd, 2007 17:00

oops :) i removed my potty mouth, im sorry, 
 
 
i have the 98 update disc when i reboot and still nothing...
 i am trying to get a windows 95 disc i only have the 98 update disc and a windows me full verson disc. 
none of which will start up. 
i will be sure to repost and let you know if it works.

C3PO5

2.7K Posts

December 22nd, 2007 17:00

i save it reboots and then does the same thing operating system not found.
Hi
Like i said there has to be a windows installed before it can boot into windows 
that's way it says no operating system not found !!
Does it have a CD drive to boot to ?
 

C3PO5

2.7K Posts

December 22nd, 2007 17:00

and said good {Edit} luck.
Hi
You need to edit that out or all of this thread will be deleted that is a no no !!
Do this first OK edit is under the option button upper right !!!
This is a good thread to be just deleted for that !!

C3PO5

2.7K Posts

December 22nd, 2007 18:00

Hi
I know on most of the older computers you have to have a floppy drive {boot disk}
that will let the computer boot to a CD drive or it may not boot !
Does your friend still have the original Windows disk that came with the computer??
If so that's where i would start from !!
Good Luck
 


Message Edited by C3PO5 on 12-22-2007 12:04 PM

trixxie62

5 Posts

December 22nd, 2007 18:00

i will find out.  and start from there.  the laptop has no floppy drive or a: disk drive jsut the cdrom.
 
 
thank you sooo very very much for the help!  i will make sure i post when i attmept this
 


Message Edited by trixxie62 on 12-22-2007 03:27 PM

trixxie62

5 Posts

December 22nd, 2007 20:00

for some reason i cant find anyone with a windows 95 disc ... i guess i am gonna have to buy one somewhere lol. but i did get  a good windows 98 disc figured i would try 
i put it in and the first hard drive does the same old no operating sysytem... blah blah...
 
the second harddrive goes to no active partition found
 
 
this is the bios for the second hard drive
 
ok now how do i get around the no active partiton found problem
does this at least mean the hard drive is ok?  i tried F8 that dont work the most i can do is get to bios.
 
... sorry for being a pain  :) but i really appreciate the help


Message Edited by trixxie62 on 12-22-2007 05:31 PM

Message Edited by trixxie62 on 12-22-2007 05:33 PM



GreyMack

2.2K Posts

December 22nd, 2007 21:00

The need for a floppy disk drive on that system is nearly absolute. You can get one to swap with the CD-ROM drive or also get a cable that connects the floppy disk drive to the system using the serial port.

Examples, not necessarily recommendations:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Used-Dell-floppy-p-n-98311-for-LATITUDE-LM-LMP_W0QQitemZ140183663679QQihZ004QQcategoryZ42182QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p1638.m118

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Latitude-Inspiron-FDD-floppy-cable-45647-53975_W0QQitemZ180102255685QQihZ008QQcategoryZ42321QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p1638.m118


The system should be able to run a controlled version of Windows 98 without too much problem, or several versions of Linux quite well.


GM

C3PO5

2.7K Posts

December 23rd, 2007 07:00

ok now how do i get around the no active partition found problem
does this at least mean the hard drive is ok?
Yes it is seeing the drive.
Hi
Does this mean the windows CD disk you are using is booting after the computer starts are what
is it doing ?
To me it sounds like it boots to the Windows disk but does not find a partition on the drive right?
A little more info is needed to help you .
Like when you put the OS disc in what happens after that does it say you are booting
to the CD i am at a loss here on what is not working or is working
A new drive has to be partitioned and formatted for it to work !
 
 
   

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