Windows 8.1 Operating system not found.

[Fanshawe]

Operating System not found.

I am not a computer expert. When I switched on my computer this morning the above notation was showing. Using Windows 8.1 on an Acer computer. Any help on how to get me up and running again would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Daffy D]

Hard Drive failure ?

 

The system can't read the disk to boot up 

[OneMoreFarang]

There is one simple possible solution.

Switch if off.

Wait a few seconds (so that nothing inside is moving or rotating anymore).

Slap it with your flat hand or let it drop from maybe 5cm to 10cm height. 

Turn it on again and hope that it will work again.

This works in many cases when connections are not perfect.

And just in case that your hard disk is not working anymore then that slap won't make it worse.

Try it! I used that hundreds of times with success.

[KannikaP]

No back-up? Then get in your Model T Ford and drive to a shop where they can still fix Windows 8.............oh yeh, anywhere in Thailand! 555

[norbra]

Make sure your CD / DVD player is empty and remove USB memory sticks 

If you still get the same message find your win 8 installation disk load it up and restart

[cmjl]

Another solution is to get rid of Windows and replace it with a decent operating system!

[OneMoreFarang]

23 minutes ago, cmjl said:

Another solution is to get rid of Windows and replace it with a decent operating system!

Like what? Did you miss this part?

 

4 hours ago, Fanshawe said:

I am not a computer expert.

 

 

And if he would have i.e. Linux or Mac OS and a defect hard disk, would that make a difference? With a defect disk none of the OS would work.

[KannikaP]

46 minutes ago, norbra said:

Make sure your CD / DVD player is empty and remove USB memory sticks 

If you still get the same message find your win 8 installation disk load it up and restart

How can you find something which is 20 years old?

[kidneyw]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

There is one simple possible solution.

Switch if off.

Wait a few seconds (so that nothing inside is moving or rotating anymore).

Slap it with your flat hand or let it drop from maybe 5cm to 10cm height. 

Turn it on again and hope that it will work again.

This works in many cases when connections are not perfect.

And just in case that your hard disk is not working anymore then that slap won't make it worse.

Try it! I used that hundreds of times with success.

You forgot to tell him to twirl a dead chicken above his head three times and intone "cockle doodle doo,"

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, kidneyw said:

You forgot to tell him to twirl a dead chicken above his head three times and intone "cockle doodle doo,"

I didn't write what you suggest because it doesn't make sense.

But what I wrote works in real life. I do exactly that since about 30 years and I resurrected countless PC with that method. 

My former neighbor was a flight engineer, now retired. He told me they had a word for it: "technical tap". Really

 

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/technical_tap

 

[RayWright]

Or, you could use an Irish screwdriver.

[steve187]

as others have posted maybe the hard drive has failed, need to check in the bios, if so a new one is required, and a fresh install of W8, or if you have a back ip , use that.

 

or try and recover any data you need and buy a new or a 2nd hand computer, with at least windows 10, but ideally if new W11. use 'classic start menu' to make it operate like W7, windows 8 was never any good.

[Mickeymaus]

I just see this topic is here two times. So here again the answer I gave in the other topic already. 

 

OK. The hard drive or the data on it may be damaged. But a friend of mine had the exact same problem with an Acer all in one PC years ago. First I checked the BIOS and found that the date/time was incorrect. The CMOS battery was dead and all BIOS settings were reset to default values. Luckily I came across this BIOS setting shown in the picture below. It has been reverted to Legacy. I switched it to UEFI, then saved the BIOS and it booted with no problems.

Now, I just can guess without your input. I don't know what BIOS version your computer has. I am writing this above to share with you my experience and perhaps avoid costly other things that might not have been necessary. Perhaps it is the same problem, perhaps not.

 

[Artisi]

Take the machine to the local computer geek and ask him to sort it out for you. 

[HappyExpat57]

41 minutes ago, Artisi said:

Take the machine to the local computer geek and ask him to sort it out for you. 

Typically a 200 baht fix. Money well spent.

[norbra]

12 hours ago, KannikaP said:

How can you find something which is 20 years old?

Another of your helpful offerings.

He obviously can find the pc and I doubt he would have other bootable ootions

[KannikaP]

1 hour ago, norbra said:

Another of your helpful offerings.

He obviously can find the pc and I doubt he would have other bootable ootions

I was referring to the W8 installation disc being rather ancient and probably lost.

[Lemsta69]

2 hours ago, Artisi said:

Take the machine to the local computer geek and ask him to sort it out for you. 

This. Or Google the problem as there will be a wider pool of knowledgeable folk than here on AN. That's not a dis it's just the facts.

[norbra]

32 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

I was referring to the W8 installation disc being rather ancient and probably lost.

Yeah and I forget to mention check floppy disk