Solved "missing operating system" and other pleasurable stuff...

[givolini]

Hello!

In the last few weeks I've been experiencing the following issues.

The pc started to slow down, and it kept happening more and more often. Sometime it freezes and there is no way to resurrect it.
In those cases, when I go for a restart, sometimes it won't reboot: I get a DOS error message, the likes of "impossible to find disk - press CTRL+ALT+CANC to restart". When I try to do so, it still won't boot and it says that either an external unit has been removed or there is a damaged harddisk or dvd player.
Other times, after several useless attempts at restarting using CTRL+ALT+CANC, I finally get a different error message: "missing operating system".
If I leave it alone for ten minutes, then I'll likely get the screen with the option to start windows in safe mode or normally. If I choose normal, it will start indeed... until the next event.

I have replaced the hard-disk; I have excluded usb drives from the system boot (in the BIOS); I have formatted+reinstalled everything (on different hard disks) three times in the last two weeks to no avail. I am at a loss as to what's causing this, and I'm pretty much exhausted.

I apologize if I misposted, but I am taking advantage of a rare moment of lucidity of the pc.

Thank you for your help.
Giorgio

 

[Gator]

So if I understand this correctly...

You started having "Missing Operating System" error messages and sometimes you can get the PC to boot into Windows, sometimes not?

Then, you did a clean install on a known good hard drive and still have the same issues?

 

[givolini]

Precisely

 

[Gator]

Well assuming the second hard drive it truly good, I would say you may have a problem with your disk controller, cables or your motherboard as a whole.

Start by making sure all cables are secured tightly (not just from Sata to Hard drive, but all connections)
Try switching to a different Sata connection on your motherboard.
Clean out any/all dust with an air can

Sata connectors look like this on your motherboard

 

[RolandJS]

Desktop or laptop? I ask 'cause they each have unique quirky-causes that can lead to problems as described above.
"The pc started to slow down, and it kept happening more and more often. Sometime it freezes and there is no way to resurrect it."
I've seen laptops with intermittant power brick-to-motherboard snafus, laptops getting too hot in the proc and/or HD area; desktops simply going on strike ['cause of either hardware clashing and/or software clashing].

 

[givolini]

That's what I was afraid of.

I'll try your suggestion in the weekend. It's a little more complicated than one would expect, since I have a Shuttle case (veeeeery little space inside), so I'll have to literally take the pc apart, to make sure the cables are tight.

As far as switching to a different SATA, I'm not even sure there is an available one.
But thank you for your help!

 

[givolini]

It is a desktop

 

[RolandJS]

It is a desktop

You're right, I should have remembered SATA being mentioned earlier! My jumping backNforth between screens lead to memory loss on my part,.

 

[Layback Bear]

I believe this is you motherboard. You can double check.

From you My System Specs

Motherboard Shuttle FX38

Shuttle Europe: Specification

Drive connectors
Serial-ATA II, 3 Gb/s (300 MB/s) bandwidth
4x internal (SATA) plus 2x external (eSATA)
Intel Matrix Storage Technology enabled striping and mirroring
Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and JBOD on just two or three hard disk drives
Supports Native Command Queuing (NCQ)
1x IDE ATA 100 drives (JMicron JMB368 Controller)
1x floppy disk drive
Front Panel connectors

 

[givolini]

Yes, there should be 4 SATA ports, but I must remove the graphic board to see/check them, very complicated (to me...)

 

[gregrocker]

If you can boot into the OS or Safe Mode, try working through the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.]

If it becomes unstable so you need to work from boot mode, then switch to Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start

 

[givolini]

Thank you all for your help, I'll try to put your suggestions in practice.
Best regards.