Message on startup: Operating system not found

Not sure if this should be in the hardware forum as I am not sure what the problem is.
I'll start at the beginning.. Got a free, used laptop that needed a power cord.
When I first got it it booted just fine and I ran it until the battery died.
Bought a power cord for it and plugged it in and after after the bios runs I get a black screen with the text: Operating system not found. I tried formatting and reinstalling only to get the same result. Now I have taken the hard drive out and placed it in a working laptop and all is well with the newly installed copy of windows xp sp2. Any ideas?



P.s. I also noticed that the bios (Pheonix BIOS) does not list the hard drive.Reads as follows..
primary master [none]
secondary master [cd/dvd rw drive

 

Hi, Evan omo.
Thank you for the reply. I added that information to my first post, more than likely while you were typing your reply. Any more ideas?:

 

With you up to now

Initially great, until We read below.

Make/Models of both laptops would help...

 

The make and model of the problematic laptop is an Everex NM3500W.
The laptop I tried the hard drive from the everex in is an HP DV1500.

 

Sorry hllstrHUNTER,

I should also have asked you to let us know the model of the problematic HD, though I am suspecting your budget Everex is at fault this additional info may be useful.

 

The model of HD in my "budget Everex " is a Fujitsu MHV2060AT PL. Thank you for your concern and patience with my problem Wildfire.

 

Thanks, I noted the everex originally came with a 40gb drive and I'm now wondering if 60gb is too much for it (though I would have thought 32gb would be the problem). Any chance you can put the HD from the HP into the everex and see if the BIOS detects it? Do not boot the system up just check to see if the BIOS sees a drive.

No problem, it's 2:40am here and I'm going to catch some Zzzzz but I'll look in in the morning for your reply.

 

As far as that goes I don't know anything about the history of this laptop. I do know it was free(except for the $80 power cord I bought for it)and that's the best price. I do know it booted into windows fine at least once before the battery died, as I had a chance to look over the files and programs that were installed.

I thought of this, but the one from the HP is an 80 GB and just won't physically fit in the Everex.

 

The capacity may be larger but physical dimensions will be the same

 

I agree the capacity doesn't make a difference(I was simply stating the size for possible future reference), however, the HD case is different in respect to the mounting options. I tried, it just won't plug in.

 

If the physical size was a problem how did you manage to move the fujitsu drive from the everex to the HP?

hllstrHUNTER, I'm normally an extremly patient man but it's late here and something just doesn't smell right. If I'm wrong I will be the first to apologise but please don't waste our time.

EDIT:

I'm going to give you the benifit of doubt and apologise now. Does the HP drive have an external case/mountings that can be removed?

 

No apology needed, Wildfire. It was I who was indeed wrong. Upon further inspection I found that the casing was removable. I removed it and placed it in the Everex and it did register in the bios. Please accept my humblest apology, I have no intentions of wasting your time.

 

I'll thank you for you patience and understanding now.

Try the Fujitsu drive back in the Everex. It may simply have been a badly seated drive, push it in firmly but don't use too much force.

Let us know how that goes. (I will say I'm not going to get any sleep now)

 

Tried the Fujitsu in the Everex again and it is still not showing up in the bios. The weird thing is that when I run the xp setup cd, it shows the correct volume on the hard drive .I am able to partition the drive and go through all the steps of installing windows up until the first reboot.

 

Ok,

This is getting a little confusing right now. I'm puzzled with your BIOS not seeing the drive but the XP setup disk can.

Can you download Fujitsu diagnostics tools from here and run tests on the drive.

You'll want the DOS Diagnostics tool and run the comprehensive tests.

Let us know how you get on.

 

OK, Having a little trouble with your suggestion. Perhaps you could give me a step by step.

 

Hi hllstrHUNTER,

First of all I'm going to recap this thread to clarify for others reading and my understanding. Please point out anything that I have mistaken.

1) Your Everex laptop does not recognise the Fujitsu drive in the BIOS but strangely a Windows XP install CD does.

2) Your Everex laptop does recognise another hard drive in the BIOS.

3) Another (HP) laptop recognises the Fujitsu drive in the BIOS.

If the above is all true then I have to be honest and admit I'm really confused about point 1.

Ideally you should test the Fujitsu drive in the Everex. Hopefully (but probably not) you have a floppy drive in that laptop. If not let me know if the HP has one or if you can burn a CD/DVD and we'll take it from there.

 

You are correct in your recap except that the hard drive in question is a fujitsu. As for a floppy drive I don't have one. I do have a dvd rw drive.
I downloaded the .zip file "DOS diagnostic tool ver.7 ". Extracted the files and burned to a cd, but when placed in the Everex it did nothing at all. That's why I asked for an elaboration on your suggestion, just wasn't sure if I did it right.(and probably didn't)

 

My bad , I've edited my post.

Not good a floppy would have made things easier.

You probably did, it's just that Fujitsu (IMO) are a little behind the times with their diagnostic software. We'll need to create a bootable CD containing a DOS based OS and that executable in the ZIP file. It is possible but it's been a while since I've done this. Let me know what burning software you have on the HP and I'll get back to you tomorrow with step by step instructions.