# Black screen on laptop "Operating System Not Found"



## CSizzl (Mar 3, 2008)

Hello,

I'm new and relatively novice to all things computer. I have had my dell laptop for 3 years, but it was used when I got it, so its probably 5 -6 years old. I have never had any problems with it until yesterday. I was cleaning up disk space on the hard drive when it began to make a weird kind of subtle clicking noise. Then the screen froze. I manually shut down the computer and waited about 1 - 2 hrs before turning it back on. It started to boot up, went through two screens, and then a black screen comes up saying "Operating system not found." What I am most concerned about is: 1) Is it a hardware problem or a problem with XP? 2)Is it fixable?

I have special circumstances since I have moved halfway across the world to where there are no computer fix it shops within a 50 mile radius. In more ways than one my computer is my lifeline and I am freaking out...to say the least. I can provide any more information that may be helpful if you should need it. Please help!!!!!:sigh:


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

I dont want to be the bearer of the bad news :sigh: but i think you have a hard drive problem - could be a corrupted file in the drive or worse... a dying if not already dead drive. the clicking sound you hear tells me that you may have a dead drive. 

try booting from the optical drive using a bootable CD/DVD media like a linux live CD or XP installation CD. But of course you should change some things in the BIOS settings to make it boot from the optical drive if you have not done so yet.

The error 'Operating system not found' is usually caused by a corrupted operating system on the disk or a defective disk (you can hear some clicking sound on the disk if ever it already crashed). If booting from the optical drive give good results, then may be you should consider replacing the hard drive.


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## craigwatanabe (Jan 28, 2008)

Okay I'll be the bearer of the bad news...your hard drive deep sixed. If it was clicking and now it won't boot up, I'll give it a 99.99% probability that your hard drive physically crashed. 

The good news is that you can simply replace the hard drive and reinstall your OS and drivers and you're good to go.


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## FreoHeaveho (Aug 22, 2006)

The more you try to use it, the greater distruction of data you will encouter. If you do want to recover files, you will need to take it to a qualified data recovery firm. Just, don't use the disk if you want to save anything. Otherwise, as craig.. said, new hard drive most definately.


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