No Operating System

UnitedIrishman

Have an issue with one of our laptops in the house whereby my parents for some reason decided to completely wipe their laptop and now they have a 'no operating system installed' message when the open it up.

Is it just a case of going into the boot mode and download windows 7 (they have a key but not a disk), put it on a USB key, and then change the 'Select 1st Boot Priority' to External Device will that work?

Only issue is I'm not entirely sure how or what files need to be USB key or what type they should be?

Bongalongherb

The operating system back-up re-installation should be on drive but if not, you need to install the operating system from scratch, then use a bootable 4gb or higher USB stick. To make a USB stick bootable just follow the instructions on this page below to make the USB bootable...

http://www.intowindows.com/bootable-usb/

Is it just a case of going into the boot mode and download windows 7

You should be able to install the operating system from drive what operating system was it using ?.

UnitedIrishman

Cool, cheers mate.

ressem

UnitedIrishman wrote: »

Have an issue with one of our laptops in the house whereby my parents for some reason decided to completely wipe their laptop and now they have a 'no operating system installed' message when the open it up.

Is it just a case of going into the boot mode and download windows 7 (they have a key but not a disk), put it on a USB key, and then change the 'Select 1st Boot Priority' to External Device will that work?

Only issue is I'm not entirely sure how or what files need to be USB key or what type they should be?

If you download the windows 7 iso file, you can then install and run the "Windows 7 USB DVD download tool" utility program, which walks you through putting windows 7 install media onto a blank, bootable, USB key.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool


Before reinstalling, you might want to attempt starting the laptop without any USB / cd / flash cards attached though, in case that's misdirecting the boot process.
Or connecting the laptop drive in a caddy and connecting to another machine to attempt to recover files.
http://www.easeus.com/data-recovery/partition-recovery-software/free-ntfs-partition-recovery.htm

UnitedIrishman

ressem wrote: »

If you download the windows 7 iso file, you can then install and run the "Windows 7 USB DVD download tool" utility program, which walks you through putting windows 7 install media onto a blank, bootable, USB key.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool


Before reinstalling, you might want to attempt starting the laptop without any USB / cd / flash cards attached though, in case that's misdirecting the boot process.
Or connecting the laptop drive in a caddy and connecting to another machine to attempt to recover files.
http://www.easeus.com/data-recovery/partition-recovery-software/free-ntfs-partition-recovery.htm

Most of the data that's gone they didn't mind losing as Mam tends to keep all her files on external hard drives. I think it was a case of them wanting to wipe it all but forgetting to make any sort of backup for the system so now the hard drive has literally nothing on it - and thus nowhere to boot a backup from.

Is the first option you've suggested the same as downloading a Windows 7 ISO file, using PowerISO to put it on a USB and then booting from the USB (although this part I'm sketchy on) and it should work?

Bongalongherb

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery

Is your windows 7 operating system 32-bit or 64-bit ?.

You need the serial to download from the site above.

UnitedIrishman

Bongalongherb wrote: »

You should be able to install the operating system from drive what operating system was it using ?.

It was using windows 7. The issue is that when I put in the Paragon recovery disk that came with it, there is nothing on the HD at all by the looks of things. As above - they didn't make a backup of their data/system so when I go to 'Simple Restore Wizard' it has all the /MyComputer and /mnt/disk options but if there's no backup made then there's nowhere to restore from right?

UnitedIrishman

Bongalongherb wrote: »

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery

Is your windows 7 operating system 32-bit or 64-bit ?.

You need the serial to download from the site above.

That is a good question.. seeing as I can't get into the system properties is there anywhere I can find that out?

Bongalongherb

UnitedIrishman wrote: »

That is a good question.. seeing as I can't get into the system properties is there anywhere I can find that out?

Look underneath the laptop and the sticker should say whether it is windows 7 32-bit or windows 7 64-bit, it will have the serial number there as well.

UnitedIrishman

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Look underneath the laptop and the sticker should say whether it is windows 7 32-bit or windows 7 64-bit, it will have the serial number there as well.

Sticker is there alright but only says Windows 7 Home Premium OA, the product key and a barcode - no mention of what bit..

Bongalongherb

Click on this link here... http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery Input your serial number and it should tell you by the key if the operating system is 32-bit or 64-bit. have a USB stick handy ? if so follow instructions to put operating system to USB stick.

UnitedIrishman

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Click on this link here... http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery Input your serial number and it should tell you by the key if the operating system is 32-bit or 64-bit. have a USB stick handy ? if so follow instructions to put operating system to USB stick.

Ah sound. Well getting this message for that site right now: 502 - Web server received an invalid response while acting as a gateway or proxy server.

That just the site down?

Cheers for the help btw.

Bongalongherb

That's very strange, I am getting that now myself. I'll check it out

Bongalongherb

Well that's weird as I was only on the site a while ago. According to this site they have stopped giving windows 7 iso downloads.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-now-allowing-downloads-of-retail-windows-7-copies/

UnitedIrishman

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Well that's weird as I was only on the site a while ago. According to this site they have stopped giving windows 7 iso downloads.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-now-allowing-downloads-of-retail-windows-7-copies/

Ah balls, bad timing! So I'm just going to have to go through trial and error basically? Download an ISO file of 64-bit, try it with the key, if it fails then go through the same with 32-bit?

Bongalongherb

You can call microsoft and tell them the situation as they will ask for your product key and they should be able to sort something out for you. I don't know why they took down the windows 7 operating system download, maybe because of windows 8. Your best bet is to contact them and explain this issue with them.

They will know whether your system is 32-bit or 64-bit by the product key as well.

UnitedIrishman

Cheers, will call them in a morning and give it a go tomorrow. Thanks for that.

Bongalongherb

Seeing that your operating system is OA as in OEM by the manufacturer, you can also contact the manufacturer of the laptop and they might be able to help as well.

Even though that microsoft website is down, the download of the windows operating system might not work with your product key, as your product key is OA - OEM. Contact microsoft first and see what they have to say, and then contact the manufacturer of the computer.

johnnybmac

Are you sure the recovery partition is gone?

Usually, you would have to use pretty advanced tools (diskpart etc.) to remove this. And, it's unlikely, that your parents could remove windows and manage to completely format the drive from within Windows itself.

Could be a damaged hard drive...

Did you Google "factory reset/recovery" for your make, model of laptop and try the suggested steps?

UnitedIrishman

Just an update on this - reinstalled windows onto the computer but trying to do anything is torture with how slow it is to load.

From a brief search online, there's a fair chance the hard drive is juiced? Anything I could try to see if it'll improve it.

mp22

Replace the hd

5star02707

i would go as far as upgrade to SSD? since you have external HD for backups. SSD will be a massive boost even on older computers.