missing operating system

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  1. Posts : 11
    windows 7 home premium
       #1

    missing operating system


    upon starting my computer it informs me of a missing operating system, my system is a dell xps, I have no system image disks. I have purchased a recovery usb from dell, now that does not work. I have also tried a system repair disk and that lists no operating system. I have no idea of what drivers to load and from where.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 20,583
    Win-7-Pro64bit 7-H-Prem-64bit
       #2

    Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
    This recommended update has been causing some problems
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3133977

    https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...mus-VII-Ranger

    Not sure if secure boot would be affecting your machine or not but you might review your Bios and advanced boot options for secure boot.
    Post some images if you want for the options you show.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 11
    windows 7 home premium
    Thread Starter
       #3

    I have no screenshot other than a black screen that says missing operating system
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 50
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #4

    capricorn64 said:
    upon starting my computer it informs me of a missing operating system, my system is a dell xps, I have no system image disks. I have purchased a recovery usb from dell, now that does not work. I have also tried a system repair disk and that lists no operating system. I have no idea of what drivers to load and from where.
    I suspect that you have somehow lost Windows boot manager or ruined MBR.

    My advice is this: Do not try to load drivers; it's pointless. A very simple way of restoring your machine to life, assuming that it is not a hardware problem and that you have not deleted the system by accident, is as follows: a) using GParted, check the layout of your hard drive, to make sure that you have an empty space available on any of the drives (sda, sdb, etc.). Incidentally, using the same GParted you can see if your Windows files are still present.

    b) Using a friend's computer, download and burn a disk with ANY current Linux distribution - Ubuntu, or LinuxMint, for example. Install it, using the "do something else" option at the partitoning stage - choose an empty space on any available disk, and allow the bootloader to be installed to the default device.

    Follow prompts and allow installation to proceed. Once it is complete, restart the computer; you should see a boot menu with choices of OS's. Windows should be one of them. Choose the Windows entry to log into - this should bring you to your familiar Windows screen. Again, the assumption is that your Win OS is not damaged and only the boot manager is missing. If you are comfortable with having Windows and Linux side by side on your machine, that's all you need to do.

    Otherwise,

    If Windows starts, you can rebuild boot and MBR using the system repair disk command line
    bootrec /rebuildbcd
    bootrec /fixmbr
    bootrec /fixboot

    Reboot the machine.
    When you rebuild Windows MBR, you will no longer have access to Linux.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 11
    windows 7 home premium
    Thread Starter
       #5

    what is and how do I use gparted
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 50
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #6

    GParted is free software that allows one to partition and modify disks regardless of whether there is a functioning OS present. Download it from GParted -- A free application for graphically managing disk device partitions

    The iso file gparted-live-0.25.0-3-i686.iso should be burned to a CD - it is not to be installed on the computer. The CD willl be used to start the computer and perform the necessary manipulations.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 11
    windows 7 home premium
    Thread Starter
       #7

    I have downloaded and burned gparted to disk, do I start my pc with the disc in?
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 50
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #8

    Yes; the disk is "live" - it should boot without problem assuming that your BIOS allows booting from CD. The boot order in BIOS is best set to 1-CD; 2-Disk 1; 3-Disk 2...etc. Most computers are set up in this way.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 11
    windows 7 home premium
    Thread Starter
       #9

    it does not boot from the gparted disc
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 50
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #10

    That surprises me - I have never had GParted fail to boot. Does your machine boot from ANY cd at all? Are there any messages on the screen?

    By the way, how did you make the GParted disk? did you just copy the downloaded file onto cd, or did you burn it using something like ImgBurn? Just copying the iso file won't do the trick.

    I won't be around tonight - try tomorrow.
      My Computer


 
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