missing operating system, del key does not work going to bios setting

I was trying to recover/reinstall win 7 and bring back my asus laptop to its manufacture state. When I run the recovery media (recovery dvd) that comes with my asus laptop and after answering the prompts, it gives off "missing operating system" message on an entirely black screen. I tried to go to the bios setting by hitting delete key upon boot-up but it does not respond. I switched off and back on several times trying the delete key every time but to no avail. Please help. It's an ASUS N61J Series with intel i7. I need this very badly! Thanks...

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

Have you tried using the computer's recovery partition as it sounds as though the recovery disc may be corrupted?

To use the recovery partition you need to start your computer and tap the F8 key then select the repair computer option from the advanced boot menu. Follow the prompts to format your drive and restore your computer to its factory state.

I have tried tapping F8 upon every boot-up but the same message appear every time.

According to this Asus support page, you need to use the F9 key rather than the F8 key .

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Troubleshooting N61Jq

Can you enter BIOS setup to see if your HD is being detected?

If not try resetting the BIOS to defaults, if necessary by pulling the CMOS battery: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

Once you can correctly boot the Recovery disks or Recovery partition, then if they will not run try testing the HD using maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan. Then use the CD's quick wipe function to see if Recovery Disks will now run. You can also wipe the HD using free Partition Wizard bootable CD which will also boot itself, or from the Win7 installer or Repair CD use Diskpart Clean Command

If not boot the Win7 installer which should autostart on a wiped HD to wipe HD and then Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which is a superior install without the factory OEM bloatware and duplicate utillities with better versions built into Win7.