Cannot Find Operating System! Help!

[BrianJ]

A friend of mine has Lenovo laptop that runs Vista Ultimate, the laptop itself is a little under a year old. Earlier this year, October-ish, she started her laptop to find the Cannot Find Operating System message. She took it to the tech department at the university we go too and they backed up all her info and had to reinstall Vista. We it has happened again. She said the recovery way didn't work and she had to reinstall Vista, this time losing all her pictures and everything.

What is causing this? I really want to make sure it doesn't happen a third time to her. I have read that some say it is the hard drive but I think if that was the case, she couldn't reinstall Vista or do anything to the laptop as the hard drive would be loose or fried. Any thoughts? Suggestions? Anything?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[lordbob75]

Well, it could be that the hard drive is not properly connected, or that the Hard drive is bad. Try downloading and running this program. Open it and run the scan HDD. Let it finish and see if there are bad sectors. If there are, you should consider getting a new HDD. If not, then somthing else is wrong.

~Lordbob

Stellar Smart - Monitor Hard Drive Performance - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com

EDIT: Sorry the link thing screwed up. just click the blue text.

 

[Brink]

Hi Brian, and welcome to Vista Forums.

It's hard to say for sure what it could be caused by. It could be a number of things. Double check to make sure that the hard drive is connected securely and properly.

I would recommend that she keep good backups to help protect the files that she does not want to lose. If it happens again, run a Startup Repair to see if it may be able to fix the problem for her. It could be a problem with the boot file.

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

 

[BrianJ]

Thanks yall, I relaid the info on to her brother who has the laptop in his hands. He is installing Lenux (however you spell it) so if it crashes again, not all is lost. If he doesn't get to it, I will check the Hard Drive for bad sectors when I see it on Saturday. Oh and as far as I know, she tried to use the repair stuff with Vista and it said it couldn't be fixed. Thanks again!

Brian

 

[Brink]

No problem Brian. Let us know if there is anything else you need about this later.

 

[BrianJ]

So the computer strikes again... this time it appears that windows explorer and the video card went... took it to the help desk here on campus (I am at a university) and they did a once over and nothing wrong was found. The tech used the command prompt window to check stuff and run a systems restore and that did nothing. She needed the comp for a paper so I didn't let them get too into it and we used Linux to work on it. I just got a text that Linux froze... I am taking it back to them later in the week when I have more time.

My question for yall is what is causing this? Just random things fail... I think it could only point to the hard drive but every test I have ran shows everything fine. I have an old 60GB Hitachi laptop drive I took out of my laptop a while back. I am thinking of having that put into it. Ideas? Suggestions?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[lordbob75]

Definitely try the other drive. It could be corrupted sectors or something that you cant find.

If the problem persists with that drive, then it could be the motherboard going bad. How old is the computer?

~Lordbob

 

[BrianJ]

The laptop is only 10 months old....

 

[Brink]

I would check into the warranty before it expires to get it replaced or repaired since it is only that old.

 

[lordbob75]

I would check into the warranty before it expires to get it replaced or repaired since it is only that old.

Agreed.

~Lordbob