Operating System is Missing ???

[BuckSkin]

It seems one mystery just leads to another....

Our newest computer, DELL Optiplex 780m tower, Windows 7 Pro; after a minor glitch or two, this unit had been shut down and later started, and restarted, a number of times and all was running smoothly.

The only thing I changed, and I somehow don't really think that it has any bearing on the situation, is that, in the wee hours of last night, I installed Photoshop Elements 12.

Upon installing E12, I clicked the button that said "restart now"; the computer restarted without a hitch; I played around a bit with both sections of E12, the Editor and the Organizer, and then I shut the computer down for the night.

Then, this morning, I turn the computer on and it stops at a black screen with the message "operating system is missing"

It did not say anywhere to do this, but I pressed Ctl-Alt-Del, and it then proceeded to boot right up.

I thought this might just have been a freak occurrence, so I shut it down, waited a bit, and turned the power on again; it stopped at the same black "operating system is missing" screen; ctl-alt-del got it to start again.


History: this unit was new just days ago with a clean install of Windows 7 Pro.
Due to getting the error 0x80780119 when trying to create a system image, I used EasyBCD to relocate the boot manager to the C:\ drive after which on the next restart it said "bootmgr is missing"; I used my Windows system repair disc and it booted and didn't have that problem again.
Once the boot manager was relocated, I used Windows to create a system image of it's mostly pristine state.
I installed several programs and then created a second image with the programs included. (I renamed these images so that they would not get overwritten.)
Computer was restarted several times during all of this with nary a problem.


How do I fix this ?
Will using the system repair disc when it stops at the "operating system is missing" screen fix this problem ?

Thanks for reading.

 

[AddRAM]

Very confusing paragraph, could you please restate the problem in 1 sentence ?

See if the hard drive cables are loose, if it`s new it very well could have come loose during shipping.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi
You might post one of these as well
Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

 

[Eric3742]

Cold boot and warm boot may boot up differently.

Then, this morning, I turn the computer on and it stops at a black screen with the message "operating system is missing"

This is Cold boot.

It did not say anywhere to do this, but I pressed Ctl-Alt-Del, and it then proceeded to boot right up.

Warm boot, such as "Ctl-Alt-Del", restart.

Due to getting the error 0x80780119 when trying to create a system image, EasyBCD to relocate the boot manager to the C:\ drive after which on the next restart it said "bootmgr is missing"

Reallocate the boot manager may cause this "bootmgr is missing"

I used Windows to create a system image of it's mostly pristine state.
I installed several programs and then created a second image with the programs included. (I renamed these images so that they would not get overwritten.

When you do the restore, the system may not be able to detect where and which image to restore to.
The name is design by the system, and it can tell which is the correct date, or ask you to choose which image you want to restore.
Rename them may cause this restore to fail.


Do as what ThrashZone mentioned.

 

[BuckSkin]

Here is the disc management screenshot.