An Operating System Wasn't Found. (Been trying for ages!)

[Entenka]

Hi there! I have a Samsung RV515, which I had running Windows 8, and I decided to go back to Windows 7. When I boot up my machine I get the following error;

"An operating system wasn't found. Try disconnecting any drives that don't contain an operating system."

I've read various posts of other people with the same issue, and I'm actually quite savvy with computers myself - but this has me baffled.

In my BIOS, I have my priorities set to;
1~ USB HDD (which is a 250GB HDD from an old laptop, with W7 on it)
2~ SATA DVD Drive (which currently has a Windows 7 Installation Disk inside)
3 ~ SATA 500Gb HDD (the one on the inside of the laptop)

I've tried Manual Boot Override, both on the USB HDD & the DVD Drive, but I just get sent back to the error. No matter what I seem to do, I cannot get to the repair screen which numerous other posts have claimed I should if following the steps set out for me.

I'm confused as hell, and I've got some really urgent work to get done that I can't do (I'm an amateur Games Composer working on a project at the moment) so I'm desperate to get my machine working again.

 

[whs]

I decided to go back to Windows 7

How did you actually do that. Did you reformat the HDD before installing Win7 ??

 

[Entenka]

What I did was install W7 onto an empty partition on my hard drive, then whenever I restarted my computer, I had the option to use either Windows 7 or 8, but the default became Windows 7.

I kept both for a few weeks, and then decided to remove Windows 8 altogether for now, because a lot of the software I use at the moment isn't compatible even when running in compatibility mode for Windows 7.

To do this, I went into the Create an Manage Hard Drive Partitions option in Settings via the Start Menu (after searching Partition), and I erased the Windows 8 Partition, which left me with my D:/ Partition for all my files etc, at approx 200Gb, my Windows 7 Partition at approx. 230Gb & "Free Space" at 64Gb, where Windows 8 used to be.

It was working absolutely fine last night, then when I went to turn on my laptop today, I got the above error.

 

[Entenka]

Basically, from what I can gather, I've not selected the Windows 7 Partition as the Default Partition, so instead, what my Laptop is doing is trying to boot off the empty Partition.

I've tried using my Windows 7 Disk, and now also an Ubuntu disk just to get something installed on the empty space, but as soon as I choose to boot from the DVDs (and even the old hard drive from my old Laptop which has W7 on it), it sends me straight to this error screen again.

 

[whs]

Try this: Changing the Default Entry - EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

 

[Entenka]

Sorry, I'm confused. How do I use this program if I can't get the laptop to actually boot up into Windows 7? I won't be able to install the program, is there anything that can intercept the boot process on the laptop that's currently not booting up?

 

[Kaktussoft]

1~ USB HDD (which is a 250GB HDD from an old laptop, with Windows 7 on it)
detach that form the system, at least for the test.

Have you ever booted from USB or DVD, so you know how to do that?

 

[Entenka]

"I've tried Manual Boot Override, both on the USB HDD & the DVD Drive, but I just get sent back to the error."

 

[Entenka]

Also, if I press ESC when the Samsung screen appears, I get a wee blue box that pops up asking me to select a boot medium, it also gives me the option to go into my BIOS, and once in there I've tried choosing the DVD & the USB HDD from there as well, but to no avail.

The Hard Drive is definitely working though, so I know it's not a hardware problem.

I'm contemplating opening up the Laptop case and removing the Hard Drive, then plugging it into this laptop (my parent's cruddy machine) as an external at least to rip everything off and then clean the whole thing, but I don't really fancy the risk that I break something when doing so.

 

[Kaktussoft]

The Hard Drive is definitely working though, so I know it's not a hardware problem.

How come you are so sure? You can't even even boot... so looking at the files is impossible. But I think the hard disk is fine. Even with a bad hard drive you can boot from DVD.

So you can't boot from DVD/USB/HARDDRIVE... all same error message?

BIOS recognizes USB disk, internal harddrive and DVD drive? Detach usb disk and it doesn't see it anymore.

 

[Entenka]

The Hard Drive is definitely working though, so I know it's not a hardware problem.

How come you are so sure? You can't even even boot... so looking at the files is impossible.

Yeah it's still whirring away, as far as I know if it was knackered it wouldn't be spinning according to some other threads I've read.

I meant taking the Hard Drive out of the Laptop to use in the same way I use the other disk as storage, my 2nd disk is an old HDD from my previous laptop which I took apart when the motherboard fried out, I just connect it via a SATA -> USB cable and it works just like an external drive. But opening my current machine up is a bit on the risky side since I'm not a specialist and I don't really fancy breaking any bits on the inside of the laptop haha.

And yeah, the BIOS recognises all 3 devices (SATA HDD, SATA DVD Drive & USB HDD), and when I take out the USB HDD it does become absent from the menu.

 

[Kaktussoft]

So BIOS detects all boot devices. close to impossible DVD drive, harddisk and usb disk are broken.

I think bios can't instruct the bootstrapping to jump to dvd/harddisk or usb. Very strange.

 

[Entenka]

No solution then?

 

[Kaktussoft]

No solution then?

Stress test the gpu using a linux bootable CD. Or other windows utility. Don't know any tools though

Or put the gpu in another machine and test.

Can't help you further...sorry

 

[Entenka]

Yeah I tried a Linux Ubuntu 13 CD before I posted, figured it was worth a shot but it didn't boot up. Cheers anyway.

 

[Entenka]

Christ, how many times do I need to mention this? THE LAPTOP WON'T BOOT FROM DISK, I've clearly stated several times, that this is the case & thus the recovery disk is of no use. Windows 7 was the default option, I also stated this, it just one day happened to not be the case. I'd removed the Windows 8 partition and had been running fine for a couple of weeks before this problem suddenly occurred.

And for the original statement, before you slyly edited your comment;

"Did you even bother to look at the HD partition flags to see if you were deleting the System boot partition? It's likely if 8 was installed first it held the System flag so when you deleted it Win7 is no longer bootable.

Why would you also keep another HD with Win7 plugged in externally when you're trying to sort this?"

Yes, I did make sure that Windows 7 was the active partition, as I said above, because as I've mentioned, it was working fine initially.

And, for the daft comment about keeping an old hard drive with the operating system on it, firstly; the drive wasn't inserted when I initially booted up the laptop, so you can sack that comment it's a stupid assumption. It was an attempt at getting my machine to boot up via another device with the operating system on it, surely that's reasonable? I've had issues before through just sheer stupidity where I've booted up from that Hard Drive just to get access to machine, particularly after removing Linux from my machine before I read up on how to fix the MBR.

Before taking a high & mighty approach to something, make sure to actually read what the problem is thanks, I don't appreciate coming to a forum for a solution to a problem and being served with heavy doses of condescension, as would no one else.

 

[Entenka]

Anyway, I'd like to thank both whs & Kaktussoft for trying to help me, I eventually just took the HDD out of the laptop and found that the disk had actually become corrupt when I plugged it into another machine via SATA - USB since it said to use the drive I need to format it.

I assume that the laptop had died during an update or something similar, but I managed to recover the data using EaseUS Data Wizard & have since formatted the machine & gotten it back up & running again.

Cheers again lads.