error message 'operating system not found'

Question

occasionally when booting the laptop, I get this error message. Always the hard drive runs way too long, There are times that it takes an hour to get the hard drive light to stop being continously on. If I wait until the hard drive light is off and the system is booted up to select an application to start, no difference which application, The drive light is on continously for a loooooonnnnnggg time again, It may be half an hour before the app starts, it may even be longer. I have been online with the customer service guy for about half an hour and he can not tell me that this is or isnot an indication the drive is dying. After being frustrated with everyone I can discuss this with. I went to Hitachi and selected my laptop in thier selection area. I ordered a 40gb Hitachi 5K100 drive from NewEgg. I have taken this laptop abart and did not find anything wrong or broken anywhere inside on the board or anywhere else. The system boots from the CDr and the floppy, it boots from the hard drive but takes way too long for the OS to load all the drivers. From my observation the hard drive is bad, If I am wrong, I have return priviledges. I just don't think I am wrong on this one. Any input from you laptop guru's is welcome on my part.

bobyjo · Answer

I forgot to say this. While running the diagnostics, the hard drive was not active at all compared to when it boots from the hd.  Now I know it will be more active when booting from it, but not to take half an hour to boot or more.

ejn63 · Answer

If the drive checks out OK hardware-wise,

Is Windows updated with all current critical updates?

Do you have current, real-time antivirus and firewall protection?

Have you scanned for and removed all spyware?

If the answer to any of the above is no, it's past time for a thorough security sweep of the system.

ejn63 · Answer

Have you run the Dell diagnostics (or the Hitachi ones) on the drive?

bobyjo · Answer

Yes, I ran the diagnostics on the CDr from Dell. It found no errors, but the error I am asking about only happens once in a blue moon. The main gripe is the time the hard drive runs before completing a boot, or opening a program. I even formatted the drive and reinstalled XP, still the same problems. I booted the laptop this morning and the hard drive was still running after an hour. My desktop boots in a minute or less from cold dead off.

bobyjo · Answer

I ordered a new Hitachi 5K100 5400rpm 40gb hard drive yesterday. I talked to a service tech at a local computer store. According to him the older IBM 4200 drives were very apt to break after a year or so of operation. Anyone having a drive problem with these IBM drives should replace them with the 7K100 7200rpm drive from Hitachi asap. IMO::

ejn63 · Answer

Given what I've seen of the first-generation Hitachi/IBM 7200s, I'd recommend Seagate - the Hitachis haven't been that reliable. Granted, the Seagate design is equally new and unproven, but Seagate's other Momentus designs have been very reliable - more so than the Hitachi and Hitachi/IBM TravelStar designs.

bobyjo · Answer

IBM sold thier hard drive operations to Hitachi a few years ago. From the reviews I have read, Hitachi drives are much better and carry a full 3 yr warranty in the 5400 & 7200 rpm versions. 5K100 & 7K100 models are much faster, the system boots in less than a minute now. I now wish I had purchased the 7K100 drive since the 5K100 is almost double the speed of the old IBM drive that was in the system. Message Edited by bobyjo on 01-04-2006 03:46 PM

Storage, Drives & Media

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