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Operating System not found

2K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  Blitze105 
#1 ·
When I was searching for ways to fix my computer's most recent problem, I came across a previous post with pretty much the same problem that I seem to have.

It was posted by Kahalista in the following thread:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=63614

Last Sunday (Sept 25, 2005) I downloaded three anti-spyware programs. They all seemed to work fine and I had no problems. This past Thursday, I set my computer to defrag overnight and when I woke up in the morning, I found that the screen was displaying a message that said that the OS could not be found.

I shut down my computer and when I turned it on again a minute later, it would not boot up and was making clicking noises. When I tried turning on my computer several hours later, it loaded XP ok. I tried to burn my files onto CD so that I could try to reformat, but after my computer would start the burning process, a screen would come up stating that the OS could not be found and the clicking would begin again.

I recently reformatted my computer in May (due to problems I think with a virus although my antivirus software never picked up a problem and it was up to date), so I don't have a ton of files on my computer. But nevertheless, I would like to try and retrieve them. Is there any way I can get my files off my computer so that I can reformat it? (Assuming reformatting will help.)

Just to give a little more information on my computer (in case it helps), it is an IBM Thinkpad (model A31 I think) running XP Pro. I got it in August of 2002.

Thanks in advance!
RedPlanet
 
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#2 ·
I am not sure i fully understand. Have you formatted already or not?

I recently reformatted my computer in May (due to problems I think with a virus although my antivirus software never picked up a problem and it was up to date), so I don't have a ton of files on my computer. But nevertheless, I would like to try and retrieve them. Is there any way I can get my files off my computer so that I can reformat it? (Assuming reformatting will help.)
 
#3 ·
Looks like (in the other thread) Johnny Faster and Geekgirl had the right idea in determining the hard drive manf. and getting their brand-specific diagnostics.
Hopefully you can build a bootable floppy on another machine and then boot to it on yours.

If the hard drive is deceased and you have valuable data on it you will have to take it to a Data Recovery firm and see if they can extract it.

Regards,
JF
 
#4 · (Edited)
Yep, the drive sounds like it is almost deceased.

Another option (rather than spending lots on a data recovery specialist) is to buy another hard drive (not too expensive), and add it to the system. You can download boot disks that allow you to transfer files between drives (even NTFS), and they work quite well too (managed to backup all my data from a Western Digital drive that was failing).

Will post boot disk URL if I find it...

:edit:

http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm
 
#5 ·
Blitze105 - In my attempt to give as much information as possible, I think I didn't write it in the clearest manner. When I mentioned that I recently reformatted my computer in May, that was before the current problem of having a clicking hard drive. I'm wondering now if refomatting it again will help it return to normal.

killakrust- thanks so much for the link. I was planning on buying an external hard drive, but was unsure if I would be able to transfer my files (and therefore make that purchase a bit of a waste).
 
#6 · (Edited)
You should be able to get your data, however maybe not 100% of it...

Besides that making the hard drive that is failing a slave and booting up on a new master hard drive should work just fine.
-blitze

PS
im a simple minded person sorry, after i read all that i have to have something that summarizes what happen or it confuses me. I can't get into detail or i forget where it started then i can't member where it ended... :/
 
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