Urgent! Laptop can not find the operating system!!!!!!

[goirulz]

My younger brother was a watching a movie on the laptop when all of sudden, the screen started flashing for no reason. I tried ctrl+alt+dlt, but it wouldn't work, so I manually shut the down the laptop. When I tried rebooting, a dos screen came up and said that the operating system could not be found! I tried rebooting 3 times and the same message came up every time. On the fourth try, it finally found the os and the windows login screen came up.

I don't know what happened, so could anyone tell me? Was it some sort of virus? Cause the laptop is connected 24/7 to broadband internet and my brother did download some "Pokemon" video clips from the internet. I was really scared that I'd lost everything, including the os, and I want to avoid the same situation in the future. Please help.

[Robert]

Don't let your brother touch it next time.

[LeX]

Well, I think he knows by now. I'm sure he's more interested in what to do "this time".....

[Robert]

Originally posted by LeX
Well, I think he knows by now. I'm sure he's more interested in what to do "this time".....



and I want to avoid the same situation in the future. Please help.


Most likely the hard drive was booting up. Next time, just leave it off for a few minutes and then turn it on.

[goirulz]

Hmm I see. But just wondering, why would the hard drive take so long to boot up the operating system that one time? Normally, it does it in 15 seconds flat, but it took nearly 5 minutes this time. Thanks for your advice, Robert!

[Robert]

Originally posted by goirulz
Hmm I see. But just wondering, why would the hard drive take so long to boot up the operating system that one time? Normally, it does it in 15 seconds flat, but it took nearly 5 minutes this time. Thanks for your advice, Robert!

You said your brother was watching a movie. Laptops tend to get hot and they don't have a cooling fan on all the time like a desktop. Most of the time you'll hear the fan come on when you turn the laptop on and then while using it , it'll kick in and cool the system and then turn it off. It could have just been overheating or what not. Sort of like when you boot a desktop up with a cd in the cd-rom, sometimes the cd-rom device won't appear.. it just happens.

But glad it worked out, hate to see a broken laptop!

[LeX]

Oops. :p I apologize.

[Weirds]

Pull off the power for several minutes.

Then turn on your laptop.