operating system not found sometimes, but works okay other times

Son's pc got error 2 times in 2 days:

operating system not found on any disk

each time we let it cool down for a few minutes and then
tried again and it restarted ok. i read the
message "operating system missing", but i am wondering
what it means if it only fails to recognixe the
OS some times, but then works fine most of the time.

can this be caused by overheating?

If temperature related then it would appear to be a hardware problem, possibly
with the hard disk heads going out of alignment as the system warms up.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



charlie wrote:

Son's pc got error 2 times in 2 days:

operating system not found on any disk

each time we let it cool down for a few minutes and then
tried again and it restarted ok. i read the
message "operating system missing", but i am wondering
what it means if it only fails to recognixe the
OS some times, but then works fine most of the time.

can this be caused by overheating?

how do i determine if it is temperature related and what
do i do about heads going out of alignment ? is this error
message an indication that this hard drive is dying also?
the pc is still under warranty thru best buy, but why
would a relatively new HD be dying?

when we had the HD installed we also had the tech install
a casing fan, but it has been vibrating on start up since
december - my son did not tell me until yesterday and i
removed it because it did not sit flush against the casing
on one corner - the fan was slightly warped

-----Original Message-----
If temperature related then it would appear to be a
hardware problem, possibly
with the hard disk heads going out of alignment as the
system warms up.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



charlie wrote:

Son's pc got error 2 times in 2 days:

operating system not found on any disk

each time we let it cool down for a few minutes and then
tried again and it restarted ok. i read the
message "operating system missing", but i am wondering
what it means if it only fails to recognixe the
OS some times, but then works fine most of the time.

can this be caused by overheating?


.

charlie wrote:

Son's pc got error 2 times in 2 days:

operating system not found on any disk

Is that the verbatim text of the error-message ? (I'm not familiar with
that one... perhaps you have more than one disk drive...?).

Start the system with an Emergency Boot Disk [1] and see if you can
access your hard drive immediately. While you're there run a SCANDISK
from the A:\ prompt on your hard disk.

As MikeM said, it may be temperature related... what happens is that as
temperature fluctuates, so do the positions of the read/write heads due
to expansion. Most drives are self-correcting to a degree, but if the
drive was formatted while the temperature was quite high, the tracks
might be a little bit too far out of alignment compared to regular
temperatures (very rare, though).

You might want to download and use the drive manufacturer's testing
utility on it (read the instructions, though) to test out the drive.


Rick

[1] The EBD was the floppy disk you made when you installed Windows; if
you didn't make one or can't find it, go to :
ControlPanel/AddRemovePrograms/StartupDisk and make a new one... or
alternatively, download and run an EBD making program from
www.bootdisk.com (WinME OEM).

When you boot with the floppy disk, you should get to full-screen DOS
mode; if Windows starts instead, you have to reboot, go into the BIOS
and change the BootingOrder to FD, CD, HD.




each time we let it cool down for a few minutes and then
tried again and it restarted ok. i read the
message "operating system missing", but i am wondering
what it means if it only fails to recognixe the
OS some times, but then works fine most of the time.

can this be caused by overheating?