Messed up my partition - No operating system found

[Guest]

Its a Dell Laptop L400. I used Norton Partition Magic and now I get No
operating system found. I tried placing a Windows XP (full version-not
upgrade version) and I continue to get No operating system found.

If I go out and buy a new hard drive, will the laptop still work ?

Thanks

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

Its a Dell Laptop L400. I used Norton Partition Magic and now I get No
operating system found. I tried placing a Windows XP (full version-not
upgrade version) and I continue to get No operating system found.

If I go out and buy a new hard drive, will the laptop still work ?

Not without an OS.

 

[paulmd]

Its a Dell Laptop L400. I used Norton Partition Magic and now I get No
operating system found. I tried placing a Windows XP (full version-not
upgrade version) and I continue to get No operating system found.

If I go out and buy a new hard drive, will the laptop still work ?

Yes. But you don't have to replace the drive. At least not yet. Clearly
your partitions are screwed up or corrupted. But the drive itself is
probably fine.

First check a few things in the bios.

Check the boot order (aka startup sequence and a few similar sounding
things) includes the CD drive before the hard drive.

Try to boot from the CD again. If you can get somewhere, then just redo
the partitions reinstall the OS.

If you can't do anything because the partitions on the hard drive are
totally corrupt. Then A drive wiping utility can be handy. I've used
DBAN for this purpose. You need not let it complete, just 1 or 2
percent is good.

dban.sourceforge.net

Then reinstall the os.

 

[Guest]

Yes. But you don't have to replace the drive. At least not yet. Clearly
your partitions are screwed up or corrupted. But the drive itself is
probably fine.

First check a few things in the bios.

Check the boot order (aka startup sequence and a few similar sounding
things) includes the CD drive before the hard drive.

Try to boot from the CD again. If you can get somewhere, then just redo
the partitions reinstall the OS.

If you can't do anything because the partitions on the hard drive are
totally corrupt. Then A drive wiping utility can be handy. I've used
DBAN for this purpose. You need not let it complete, just 1 or 2
percent is good.

dban.sourceforge.net

Then reinstall the os.

I am using DBAN now, its at 3% (running autonuke). I initially tried
the interactive mode and I got a message saying I had a bad sector.

 

[Rock]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:


I am using DBAN now, its at 3% (running autonuke). I initially tried
the interactive mode and I got a message saying I had a bad sector.

I suggest you download a drive diagnostic utility from the drive
manufacturer's website. This will create a bootable floppy or CD. Boot
from that and run the diagnostics on the drives(s).

 

[paulmd]

I am using DBAN now, its at 3% (running autonuke). I initially tried
the interactive mode and I got a message saying I had a bad sector.

That COULD have caused Partition Magic to fail in the first place. And
hence this mess. As Rock suggested, use the manufacturer's tool to
diagnose. But Seatools from Seagate will do if you can't find one. Just
to note, given that the drive is now wiped, the filesystem test will
fail, of course. (no filesystem TO test)

DBAN is not a diagnostic. the 'autonuke' setting wipes all the drives
attached to a system if at all possible. And just because dban says
there might be an error doesn't mean there really IS one. But....you
need to check the drive for sure before you put XP back on the machine.