No hard drives installed on your computer - An Error and its solutions

Windows is the most popular and widely OS which can work with all most all leading applications and software. So, it is more prone to errors and sometimes the errors lead to the loss or inaccessibility of valuable data stored in the storage media. In these situations, unavailability of updated backup can be more panic and you need any Windows data recovery utility to recover and restore your data to normalcy.

Scenario:

You are having an ASUS Pro31 Series laptop, where Windows XP professional operating system is installed. While fixing a problem with Microsoft Outlook, you are continuously trying to boot the system in safe mode and suddenly, the system failed to start, flashing an error message on the screen. You may have received any of the following error messages:

“Setup did not find any hard drives installed on your computer ”

OR

“Missing Operating System ”

OR

“Operating system not found”

Cause

The above mentioned error messages may appear due to any of the following conditions:

The BIOS does not detect the hard disk.

The partition that has been marked as Active is incompatible.

The partition that contains the MBR is no longer active.

The first sector of the hard disk has been corrupted or there is any corruption to the MBR.

There may be some damage to the hard disk.

Resolution

As there are multiple causes behind the issue, you have to check in different angels in order to resolve the issue:

Verify, whether the BIOS lists and recognizes the hard disk.

Try the command fixmbr in the Windows XP Recovery Console to repair the initial sectors of the MBR.

This fixmbr can be harmful to the system if any hardware problem or virus related infection is present as in that particular situation, this command may make the partition inaccessible. Hence, it is advised to run the anti virus utility before running the fixmbr command.

If the above measures fail to resolve the issues and valid backup is not there with you, this is indeed a serious case of data loss. In this situation, you have to take the help of any available Windows data recovery software to recover your invaluable data back. These Windows data recovery utilities are so interactive that you don't have learn the technology behind it.