Can't find operating system

I know this is a bit late but I had this problem with my last computer when I left any kind of storage device connected to it via USB during a restart (e.g. external HDD, USB Memory stick). There was some kind of issue in the BIOS settings of the motherboard that caused it to look at the USB ports for the OS rather than the Primary HDD. I kept changing and saving the setting the way it should have been, but every so often it changed back and I got your error on restarting, at which point I would have to remove my USB devices before it would restart.
 
Thanks there was no USB devices plugged into it. We don't have Vista to reinstall the operating systems as dell did not send it to us when we bought the pc 1.5 years ago.
 
If it were me and saving my photos was paramount then I'd boot the system on an Ubuntu Linux Live CD and copy the photos over to my external USB hard drive before proceeding. Unlikely as it seems is there any chance that you bought the PC with a 3.5" floppy drive and that there is a disk in said drive?
 
You don't need the vista disc to do a system restore.An exact copy on the system as it was installed is kept in a hidden partition.Pressing "ctrl"+F11 during bootup accesses this partition,formats the drive and reinstalls vista.The booting from a linux disc will work a treat but requires some computer experience.If you want to give it a try there's plenty of help here.
 


newsflash.. he cant boot.
besides.. where does this 'exact copy of the system' comes from???
 
nmesisca said:
newsflash.. he cant boot.
besides.. where does this 'exact copy of the system' comes from???
Click to expand...

it comes from a hidden partion on the c drive this accessed before the system attempts to boot vista. This may restore the OS but it will wipe all data on the disc. While it may be possible to recover some of this with recovery software it is by no means certain that it will all be intact as the act of installing the recovery software will more than likely over write some data. Booting from a live cd is a very good idea as it will not over write the data on the disc. Once the data is safely transferred to an external drive then run the restore from above would fix the os although all the porgrammes the user installed would have to be reinstalled plus all updates from microsoft. if repair from installation cd is similer to xp then a friends cd should work as long as no attempt to do a full installation is made (the coa key would not match) not quite sure if they would require a particalur version of the vista cd such as ultimate or home premium ect. xp requires the XP PRO CD
 
Em... I know he can't boot if he could boot the system this post wouldn't exist.This is becoming a bit repetetive at this stage.Myself and adder1 have outlined whats required.
 
The pc is currently in PC world so hopefully they will get it working again, as we were afraid to try anything too much without the knowledge or confidence and are terrified we will do more damage.

PC world told us it could be upto 1.5 weeks to be fixed, so fingers crossed it will work.

Thanks or all the replies.
 

let us know how you get on it may be helpful for others if it is successful
 
He did recover thousands of pictures for us but they where all thumbnail size!!! But in the meantime I had found some cds where I had backed them up and had forgotten about them so have most of them, lost about 12 months or so of stuff!! Lesson learnt the hard way, backing up now more frequently!!
 
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