Laptop wont boot - 'OS not found'

[Nemeliza]

Im getting an error when i turn on my laptop the error is 'Opertating system not found' but when i put the XP install cd rom inthe drive windows boots up fine and all the data is there!

i have tried fixing the mbr and the boot from the recovery console but still no good.

Anyone know how i can get this thing to boot up without the assistance of a CD in the drive?

Thanks

Nemz.

[Silent Shark]

All I can suggest is that you check the BIOS hasn't changed and it goes to the HDD to look for an OS.

Either that or the boot sector on your HDD is possibly messed up, and will probably need reformatting.

These kind of problems are a pain, I hope you figure it out!

[kushtibari]

Have you tried booting in safe mode with command prompt and then using "chkdsk /r" (with the XP disk in the drive). Thats worked for me before when the recovery console has failed when I was trying to recover an HP laptop.

[Nemeliza]

Solved it, something in the BIOS was out...not sure exactly what as i changed lots of things but its working now.