XP suddenly disappeared

[Guest]

Early this morning, XP was fine, the computer was fine, and all was well.
The unit is used mostly for basic email, word processing, and surfing,
nothing heavy, and it's worked just fine for several years. About two hours
after I fell asleep (the computer was fine at the time; XP was up and
running), I woke up to get back to work. At some time during those couple
hours, the operating system disappeared. According to the other four people
in the house, as well as all clocks and other electronics, there were no
power interruptions or anything that might have interfered with the computer.
But the screen has gone from the usual XP setup to a black screen of death
with DOS-like (but no drive letters or colons or anything) characters
announcing that there is no operating system and telling me to press any key.
Which I do, only to get the same message reappearing in a trail all the way
down the page. I've restarted the computer via the power button. I've tried
ctrl-alt-del, with no effect.

I have absolutely no idea what happened or what I need to do to get back in.
We don't have XP (or any other) backup/boot/install disks. The system was
new in late 2001, and the OS was installed at that time; I don't have record
of what specific version, just some 2001 XP Home edition. While I'm a
veteran user of the day-to-day stuff, I admit to being completely lost when
dealing with talk of booting from DOS and anything more technical than that,
so I've had no luck when running searches to try to figure out what's going
on and what I need to do. I need help from someone patient who can help me
in nice, easily parsed layman (idiot) instructions. I'm also broke, so
hauling the unit to a professional and making them figure it out isn't an
option.

I make my living online (possibly the reason I'm broke) and rely on that
computer as my workhorse backup, so I'd be eternally grateful to whomever can
help me fix whatever's going on.

 

[philo]

Early this morning, XP was fine, the computer was fine, and all was well.
The unit is used mostly for basic email, word processing, and surfing,
nothing heavy, and it's worked just fine for several years. About two hours
after I fell asleep (the computer was fine at the time; XP was up and
running), I woke up to get back to work. At some time during those couple
hours, the operating system disappeared. According to the other four people
in the house, as well as all clocks and other electronics, there were no
power interruptions or anything that might have interfered with the computer.
But the screen has gone from the usual XP setup to a black screen of death
with DOS-like (but no drive letters or colons or anything) characters
announcing that there is no operating system and telling me to press any key.
Which I do, only to get the same message reappearing in a trail all the way
down the page. I've restarted the computer via the power button. I've tried
ctrl-alt-del, with no effect.

First see if the HD is detected in the bios.

If it is...then boot from your XP cd
and from the repair console issue the command : fixboot

(also try : fixmbr)


If the HD is *not* detected by the bios...it might have failed...
but check your cables

 

[philo]

Thank you for the reply.

How do I get to the bios? I can't get the computer to do *anything* accept
flash the "Operating System Not Installed. Press Any Key" message as soon as
I turn the unit on. There are no DOS prompt options. The only effect when I
hit a key is that the message repeats itself. Even if I could get to the
bios (whatever that is), I have no idea how to tell if the HD is detected.
And I have no disk/CD to try. I'd love to try your advice, but I freely
admit to being an absolute neophyte with these technical aspects, so I'm
begging for step-by-step, explaining-it-to-an-idiot instructions.

Typically. you hit the <delete> key right after you turn the computer on...

(but it can vary)

When you first turn on your machine ...hopefully...you will see a message
such as

hit <delete> to enter setup

if your machine is a Compaq you'd hit F10


other possibilites are the F1 key or the F2 key

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

How do I get to the bios? I can't get the computer to do *anything*
accept flash the "Operating System Not Installed. Press Any Key"
message as soon as I turn the unit on. There are no DOS prompt
options. The only effect when I hit a key is that the message
repeats itself. Even if I could get to the bios (whatever that is),
I have no idea how to tell if the HD is detected. And I have no
disk/CD to try. I'd love to try your advice, but I freely admit to
being an absolute neophyte with these technical aspects, so I'm
begging for step-by-step, explaining-it-to-an-idiot instructions.

How to get into your BIOS depends, not on Windows, but on what
motherboard/BIOS you have. As a matter of fact, you have to access the BIOS
before Windows even starts to boot. One common way is to press the Del key
when you first power on, but that's not necessarily right for your computer.
Watch the screen carefully when you first boot; there's often a message
there telling you what to do. If not, check your system documentation or
check with your vendor.

Also look here: http://michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm Or just
try the Del key. There's a good chance that's correct for you.