Windows 7: System restore saying no OS is installed, system repair stuck in loop

Last night i closed my laptop without shutting it down. I woke up this morning and turned it on and it went to the system repair screen and ran through that. It says there are problems but they are not automatically repairable. I then tried to do the system restore to an earlier point in time and had one option for a couple days ago. I ran through that but it says there is an error and when i expand to see the error one of the things listed is no OS installed.

I have windows 7 64bit.

Does anyone here have any idea what might be the problem. I am very confused as to why it would say i dont have an OS installed but it is running through the system start up repair as well as listing a date that i could restore it back to.

I would really appreciate any input on this as i have a lot of data on that hard drive and i am really hoping its recoverable and not totally hosed.



I have not tried installing the hard drive into a new computer yet. I will try that a little later.

Once again, i appreciate any and all suggestions and help. Thanks.

Hi brian,

Try this on for size: Startup Repair Infinite Loop Recovery

How do you plan on running the laptop's harddrive on another computer?

lol good question. I guess to verify its the hard drive even tho im fairly sure that is what it is.

The IT person at my office suggested i try and run fixmbr in the recover console.

Anyone think this might solve the problem?

i read through those instructions and i see one problem with them. I have opened up the terminal before from the repair screen and switched to the C: drive and typed dir.

I did not see any of my files program files folder etc etc.

I know they are on the c: drive so i am wondering why i am not seeing them when i change to c: drive.

Yeah, there is either an MBR problem or your actve partition - either C or the 100MB system partition has been deactivated

Download this program (last entry on the webpage) and burn it to CD. Then load from this CD and look for the following:

1. Do you have a small 100MB partition and is it marked "Active". If it is present and not active, set it to active. The controls are in the Partition tab > Modify. But you have to highlight that partition first.

2. If there is no 100MB partition, is the C: partition active. If not, set that one active - same way (highlight > partition tab > Modify)

3. Click on the Partition tab > Build MBR

4. Click "Apply" > top left

Then try to boot your system.

If those good suggestions don't fix it try running the Startup Repair up to 3 times to rebuild the MBR. Reboot between each run.

what if i am not able to access my bios to change the boot order to boot up to the cd or flash drive?

I have not verified this fully yet but when i was trying to get into my bios this morning it seemed like it was shooting straight into the system repair. I may have been pressing the wrong key as ASUS keys are different than what i am use to. I will verify this a little later once i get home.

You should have an F key to press at boot to bring up the boot order menu, for one boot only.

ok i looked it up and found a site that says hold or press the TAB button. No wonder i couldnt figure out what F button for ASUS

You boot screen should have a list of keys and their functions too.