Windows 7 - No Operating System installations found

Yesterday, my computer crashed. I tried to restart, but after the BIOS screen, it just goes black, and has a flashing '_' in the top left corner. So I put in the reinstallation CD to try to repair the computer. I do everything necessary to bring up the System Recovery tool, but in the box that lists the Operating System to repair, it doesn't list any. So I clicked on Load Drivers, as it instructs, to find the hard drive drivers, and I CAN SEE MY C DRIVE in the dialog box. I am able to browse it and everything (Windows, Program Files, My Documents, everything). So my computer recognizes the hard drive and everything, it just says that there is no OS installed. I can't run System Restore or anything. Does anybody have any ideas as to how to "find" the operating system? Could something have happened in the registry that I could go edit?

I have tried so many things through the command prompt, but nothing works.

Have you run a disk check to recover bad sectors?

Use Advanced Boot Options to select Repair Your Computer and get to the System Recovery Options. Then select the command prompt. Do the following:

chkdsk /r c:
chkdsk /r d:
chkdsk /r e:
chkdsk /r f:

.etc until you get the message that the volume could not be opened for direct access. For any drives that do not give the message:
"Windows has checked the file system and found no problems"
run chkdsk again as above. In other words, if it says:
"Windows has made corrections to the file system"
after running the disk check, run the disk check again.

I realize you may only have one disk show up in Windows explorer, but you may have more than one disk through recovery options. This is because the system creates a hidden boot partition (which will be C: in recovery), you may have a recovery partition for your PC that is hidden (which will be D: in recovery), and you will have your primary Windows partition (which may be E: in recovery). A custom PC will likely have at least C: and D: to scan.



Also, is this a laptop or desktop computer?

I just did that, and it doesn't help. Still no operating system showing up. It made corrections one time on the c and d drives, but then the second time it was fine.

I am on a desktop computer.

Although now when I try to boot up, instead of sitting there at the flashing '_' black screen, it at least brings up an error screen now after BIOS. It says Windows failed to start because of a recent hardware or software change, etc., etc.

File: \Boot\BCD

Status: 0xc0000098

Info: The Windows Boot Configuration Data file does not contain a valid OS entry

Well ... are you able now to do a start-up repair ??

As Gianni says, try startup repair first. Use Advanced Boot Options to select Repair Your Computer and use the System Recovery Options to select Startup Repair. You may have to run three times. Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

You may need a repair disc to get to the recovery environment if you cannot access the Advanced Boot Options screen. Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc — MAXIMUMpcguides – Windows 7 tips, tricks, help, and how-to guides. Since you cannot create the disc on your machine, try to find someone with a 64 bit version of Windows 7 to create one with that person's computer.

If none of the above work, run a hard disk diagnostic using the manufacturer's tools: HD Diagnostic

I can get into System Recovery with the Windows 7 installation disk that I have, but it still doesn't list an operating system, so when I try to run Startup Repair, it just throws an error saying no operating system installed. So that isn't really getting me anywhere.

Does it mean anything if I can't even press F8 to get into the Advanced Startup Options?

You need to rebuild the boot configuration. How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows. If that does not work, I still recommend the hard disk diagnostics.

I guess I am going to have to work on the HD Diagnostics. I tried bootrec earlier with no results. I tried again and still no results.

bootrec.exe /ScanOs results in no operating systems found.

I did also find this in the course of my research into your problem: Boot Critical File post #35