Unable to find operating system windows vista

[Crash709]

recently when I turn on my HP Pavilion laptop, I get a black screen telling me it's "unable to find operating system". So, I then turn it off. after a couple of times doing this, she'll boot up normally. can anyone help and let me know what's going on, or give a direction in which to figure out why she's doing this?

Thanks!

 

[ksiemb]

recently when I turn on my HP Pavilion laptop, I get a black screen telling me it's "unable to find operating system". So, I then turn it off. after a couple of times doing this, she'll boot up normally. can anyone help and let me know what's going on, or give a direction in which to figure out why she's doing this?

Thanks!

Your Hard Drive may be failing. Once you get it to startup, Backup all your important files ! Then run diagnostic from your Disk hard ware or computer vendor, and or run chkdsk /r from elevated command prompt.

 

[Crash709]

Does the diagnostic stuff you just said require a boot disc/windows softwear disc or is this straight from onboard computer programs? If this does require a boot disc, what should I do if I don't have it!? :/

 

[winter221]

Does the diagnostic stuff you just said require a boot disc/windows softwear disc or is this straight from onboard computer programs? If this does require a boot disc, what should I do if I don't have it!? :/

Hi Crash709...

I did a few dskchks and you can do this easily in safe mode...by tapping F8 fast after rebooting cpu (it should put you in safe mode then look for the Book Disk Check tab down a list of options there ....

 

[ksiemb]

Does the diagnostic stuff you just said require a boot disc/windows softwear disc or is this straight from onboard computer programs? If this does require a boot disc, what should I do if I don't have it!? :/

Chkdsk is within windows OS. The other diagnostics mentioned can be downloaded from your computer vendor's site or the HDD site.