Hello,

I can imagine this has been asked before, and if there is a thread
about this, please link me to it and I'll waste no more time.

I have a custom built PC that has worked great for me for a while. I
run a legitimate copy (do I even need to state that?) of Vista 64bit
Home Premium.

Recently my system encountered a lock up and I had to hard reboot.
Upon rebooting, I got the "Missing Operating System" error. I thought
"okay, no huge deal, I'll just "restore" through the vista CD, use the
command promt, try bootrec.exe/fixmbr and things will be fine.

At first it seemed they were. But it turns out no. I guess I got a
bit over zealous after having getting the error again up on reboot, and
I formated my system. I even did a single pass low level format on the
hard drive. I have now completely reinstalled Vista and I am still
getting the error.

I've found that if I leave the Vista install disc in the drive and not
press any key to let it boot the CD, it will then boot the OS. But if
the Vista CD is not in, the system goes straight to the HDD and gives me
that error again.

Has anyone ever seen or heard of this before?
Is there a solution?
What's the REAL problem?


Thank you all for you help, in advance.


--
TheRealRandizzl

Hi,

The fault probably lies in a damaged boot sector on the hard drive. Either
that or a fault cable or motherboard connection. Reseating may help.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"TheRealRandizzl" wrote in message
...

Hello,

I can imagine this has been asked before, and if there is a thread
about this, please link me to it and I'll waste no more time.

I have a custom built PC that has worked great for me for a while. I
run a legitimate copy (do I even need to state that?) of Vista 64bit
Home Premium.

Recently my system encountered a lock up and I had to hard reboot.
Upon rebooting, I got the "Missing Operating System" error. I thought
"okay, no huge deal, I'll just "restore" through the vista CD, use the
command promt, try bootrec.exe/fixmbr and things will be fine.

At first it seemed they were. But it turns out no. I guess I got a
bit over zealous after having getting the error again up on reboot, and
I formated my system. I even did a single pass low level format on the
hard drive. I have now completely reinstalled Vista and I am still
getting the error.

I've found that if I leave the Vista install disc in the drive and not
press any key to let it boot the CD, it will then boot the OS. But if
the Vista CD is not in, the system goes straight to the HDD and gives me
that error again.

Has anyone ever seen or heard of this before?
Is there a solution?
What's the REAL problem?


Thank you all for you help, in advance.


--
TheRealRandizzl

It appears that your HDD is spinning up in time to boot properly especially
since the workaround you have now solves the problem since the time required
to check for a DVD is enough to get the HDD up to speed.
If you put a non bootable disk in your DVD drive it may still delay it long
enough and not ask you if you want to boot.
If you do a restore will the system boot without any disk in the DVD drive?
If yes then it is because the HDD is already powered on.
"TheRealRandizzl" wrote in message
...

Hello,

I can imagine this has been asked before, and if there is a thread
about this, please link me to it and I'll waste no more time.

I have a custom built PC that has worked great for me for a while. I
run a legitimate copy (do I even need to state that?) of Vista 64bit
Home Premium.

Recently my system encountered a lock up and I had to hard reboot.
Upon rebooting, I got the "Missing Operating System" error. I thought
"okay, no huge deal, I'll just "restore" through the vista CD, use the
command promt, try bootrec.exe/fixmbr and things will be fine.

At first it seemed they were. But it turns out no. I guess I got a
bit over zealous after having getting the error again up on reboot, and
I formated my system. I even did a single pass low level format on the
hard drive. I have now completely reinstalled Vista and I am still
getting the error.

I've found that if I leave the Vista install disc in the drive and not
press any key to let it boot the CD, it will then boot the OS. But if
the Vista CD is not in, the system goes straight to the HDD and gives me
that error again.

Has anyone ever seen or heard of this before?
Is there a solution?
What's the REAL problem?


Thank you all for you help, in advance.


--
TheRealRandizzl

Some hard drives, as they age, may take longer to spin up to speed (bearing
lubrication drying out?). My M/B bios allows me to insert a pre-delay in the
bios that holds the boot sequence for a few seconds. This allows the drive
to come up to speed.

Do you have such a setting?

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"TheRealRandizzl" wrote in message
...

Hello,

I can imagine this has been asked before, and if there is a thread
about this, please link me to it and I'll waste no more time.

I have a custom built PC that has worked great for me for a while. I
run a legitimate copy (do I even need to state that?) of Vista 64bit
Home Premium.

Recently my system encountered a lock up and I had to hard reboot.
Upon rebooting, I got the "Missing Operating System" error. I thought
"okay, no huge deal, I'll just "restore" through the vista CD, use the
command promt, try bootrec.exe/fixmbr and things will be fine.

At first it seemed they were. But it turns out no. I guess I got a
bit over zealous after having getting the error again up on reboot, and
I formated my system. I even did a single pass low level format on the
hard drive. I have now completely reinstalled Vista and I am still
getting the error.

I've found that if I leave the Vista install disc in the drive and not
press any key to let it boot the CD, it will then boot the OS. But if
the Vista CD is not in, the system goes straight to the HDD and gives me
that error again.

Has anyone ever seen or heard of this before?
Is there a solution?
What's the REAL problem?


Thank you all for you help, in advance.


--
TheRealRandizzl

On Tue, 9 Dec 2008 01:30:54 -0600, TheRealRandizzl
wrote:


Hello,

I can imagine this has been asked before, and if there is a thread
about this, please link me to it and I'll waste no more time.

I have a custom built PC that has worked great for me for a while. I
run a legitimate copy (do I even need to state that?) of Vista 64bit
Home Premium.

Recently my system encountered a lock up and I had to hard reboot.
Upon rebooting, I got the "Missing Operating System" error. I thought
"okay, no huge deal, I'll just "restore" through the vista CD, use the
command promt, try bootrec.exe/fixmbr and things will be fine.

At first it seemed they were. But it turns out no. I guess I got a
bit over zealous after having getting the error again up on reboot, and
I formated my system. I even did a single pass low level format on the
hard drive. I have now completely reinstalled Vista and I am still
getting the error.

I've found that if I leave the Vista install disc in the drive and not
press any key to let it boot the CD, it will then boot the OS. But if
the Vista CD is not in, the system goes straight to the HDD and gives me
that error again.

The motherboard BIOS is booting from the "wrong" hard disk. Go into
BIOS setup, and change the boot drive under Hard Disk Boot Priority.
Looks like the underlying problem is a faulty BIOS not enumerating the
hard drives properly.


Has anyone ever seen or heard of this before?
Is there a solution?
What's the REAL problem?


Thank you all for you help, in advance.

Well, everyone, based on the replies that are posted, I felt that
perhaps a BIOS flash might be a good solution.

I'd never done one, so I was a bit unsettled at the idea, but
thankfully ASUS makes it really easy with an application that is run
through windows that uses a .bin file you download from their site.

The BIOS flash worked great, my system is humming again with no
problems.

I suppose the only question I have at this point is what is a way to
flash a bios without using an application? I'm sure there's a nerdier,
more direct way.

Thanks all.


--
TheRealRandizzl

On Tue, 9 Dec 2008 21:21:48 -0600, TheRealRandizzl
wrote:


Well, everyone, based on the replies that are posted, I felt that
perhaps a BIOS flash might be a good solution.

I'd never done one, so I was a bit unsettled at the idea, but
thankfully ASUS makes it really easy with an application that is run
through windows that uses a .bin file you download from their site.

The BIOS flash worked great, my system is humming again with no
problems.

I suppose the only question I have at this point is what is a way to
flash a bios without using an application? I'm sure there's a nerdier,
more direct way.

There is... it involves a floppy disc and a lot of newbies have ended
up with a completely useless system after trying it.

Thus the GUI.

"Sonny Wortzik" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 9 Dec 2008 21:21:48 -0600, TheRealRandizzl
wrote:


Well, everyone, based on the replies that are posted, I felt that
perhaps a BIOS flash might be a good solution.

I'd never done one, so I was a bit unsettled at the idea, but
thankfully ASUS makes it really easy with an application that is run
through windows that uses a .bin file you download from their site.

The BIOS flash worked great, my system is humming again with no
problems.

I suppose the only question I have at this point is what is a way to
flash a bios without using an application? I'm sure there's a nerdier,
more direct way.

There is... it involves a floppy disc and a lot of newbies have ended
up with a completely useless system after trying it.

Thus the GUI.


The 'floppy' way still used a flash utility..


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default...help&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx