Operating System Not Found on Windows: Data Recovery & Fixes

Part 1 – Run Into Operating System Not Found Error

"Hey I had Windows 10 installed on my Dell Inspiron laptop, and there was only 1 partition (c drive), I think that I deleted something from Windows, and now when I'm switching on the laptop it's saying 'operating system not found'. Somebody please help me. How can I recover the data on the hard drive? Is it possible that data is still present on the HDD? Sorry for my grammar, I'm not good at English."

Is this familiar to you? Have you ever been put into such a situation? What will you do if you find the computer fails to launch the operating system and displays an error message like “Operating system not found” or “missing operating system”? At this critical moment, most of you will focus on operating system crash recovery and how to fix operating system not found errors, right?

Here, we’ll provide an excellent bootable recovery tool and show you how to recover files from a dead computer with it. And after that, we’ll also provide 6 solutions to help fix no operating system error.

Now, let’s take a closer look at how to recover files when Windows crashes.

Part 2 – How to Recover Files From a Hard Drive That Won’t Boot

Though data recovery from a corrupted internal hard disk is a relatively difficult task, we can make it easy for you with the help of the bootable recovery tool – MiniTool Power Data Recovery Bootable. This file restore tool allows you to access the hard disk without OS easily so as to recover files from the unbootable disk. How does it achieve this functionality? It has a built-in Bootable Media Builder that helps create a bootable USB drive and then you can use the bootable disk to start the failed computer.

Whether you want to recover pictures, videos, documents, audio, and other files, this hard drive disaster recovery plan can play a great role.

Moreover, you can use this tool without worrying about it causing further damage to your system or disk, as it is a completely read-only tool that only reads disk files without performing any write operations.

The following content includes 2 stages: building a bootable disk and changing startup settings to use the boot disk to recover data.

How to Build MiniTool Power Data Recovery Boot Disk

Make these preparations:

• Find another computer that works well and connect a USB drive that does not contain any needed files to the computer.
• Download MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free on the functioning computer. Then upgrade it to an advanced edition.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Next, launch the registered MiniTool Power Data Recovery to enter its main interface. Then click the Bootable Media Builder icon in the top right corner and follow the on-screen instructions to create a bootable USB drive.

Click on the Finish button when the building process is completed automatically.

How to Use the Boot Disk to Recover Data

Now, let’s see how to recover files from a crashed hard drive with ease.

Step 1. Remove the WinPE bootable disk from the working computer and then connect it to the computer that encounters the problem. Start the crashed computer, and press a specific key such as Esc, Delete, F1, F2, F10, F11, or F12 to enter the BIOS interface.

Step 2. Adjust the order of devices under the Boot menu, moving the bootable CD/DVD/USB to the first. Finally, save the changes and exit the BIOS settings panel.

Step 3. Start your computer and follow the prompts on the screen to launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery. When you see its main interface, you need to select the drive from which you want to recover files and click Scan. Or, you can switch to the Devices tab on the top menu bar and select the entire disk to scan for lost/deleted/existing files.

Step 4. After scanning, you can start to find the files you want to recover by expanding each folder listed under Path. Alternatively, you can go to the Type category list and browse through all found files by file type and file format.

Moreover, you can utilize the Filter feature to filter files by file type and other rules such as file size, file modification date, and file category. In addition, there is a Search feature in this software that allows you to search for a specific file by using its file name. Partial or complete file names are supported.

Step 5. Double-click on a file to preview it to confirm it is needed. You can preview various types of files with a single file size not exceeding 2 GB. Then you can click the Save button in the lower right corner and select a directory to store it. Alternatively, you can exit the preview page, tick the checkbox next to the file, and then duplicate these steps to select all the needed data. Afterward, click Save and select a location to store all ticked items at once.

Be aware that you need to save the recovered files to an external hard disk instead of the internal hard drive as the computer repair is not complete yet.

See, data recovery after OS is not found is not that difficult to finish as long as you choose the right tool. MiniTool Power Data Recovery is always the best choice.

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Part 3 – How to Fix Operating System Not Found Error

When advanced users see error messages like operating system not found and missing operating system, they’ll first think that this is caused by the missing boot information of the hard disk; if that’s the reason, then you can solve the problem by simply reinstalling operating system after finishing recovered needed data.

However, the error may also have resulted from other problems, so we suggest you read the following causes and solutions carefully in order to find the most suitable one for your case.

Check Whether the Hard Disk Is Detected in the BIOS

The no operating system found error could be caused by problems on the hard disk. So we suggest you enter BIOS/CMOS settings by pressing the corresponding button on the first screen you see when starting the computer. Then, go to check whether the hard disk is detected.

As long as you know the computer model, it won’t be a troublesome thing to find and enter computer BIOS/CMOS settings. But what makes it difficult is that the BIOS (or UEFI) interfaces on different motherboards are very different (even two computers developed by the same manufacturer can be totally different).

The good news is in most BIOS interfaces, it’s easy to find the boot options on the main screen. In this way, you’re able to see whether your hard disk is detected by the computer clearly.

Only when you’re using some very old motherboards, you may see the following main BIOS screen.

In BIOS settings screens like this, you need to enter the “Advanced BIOS Features” and then check the first, second, and third boot devices separately.

If you find a hard disk not detected by the computer, you should check your connection line, hard disk interface, power supply, or other factors that could affect the detection of the hard disk.

Change the Boot Order in BIOS

After checking, if you find your hard disk is detected by the computer normally, you should then check the boot sequence inside. If the hard disk is not set as the first boot device, your computer may also not be able to boot normally.

At this time, you should use the corresponding keyboard (you can see prompts in the settings window) to adjust the boot sequence easily and then make the correct hard disk as the first boot device. After that, exit and save changes. Now, restart your computer.

Check Whether the Boot Partition Is Active

What is an active partition? In brief, it is a hard drive partition that was set as the bootable partition in order to boot the operating system contained in it successfully. On each hard drive, there is at most one active partition. When you set the wrong partition active, you will not be able to access the computer.

At this time, you can use the MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition to see whether you have an active partition on the hard drive and whether it is set correctly. If not, you can make use of the “Set Active” & “Set Inactive” to change. Check out this post for details: An Easy Way to Set Partition as Active or Inactive with MiniTool.

Repair MBR or Boot Sector

When starting a computer from a bootable hard drive, the system BIOS code will first identify the startup disk & read the MBR (Master Boot Record) on it. Then, the master boot code will search for active & primary partitions on the hard disk. At this point, if the MBR is damaged or it cannot locate the boot sector of the system partition, you’ll end up in failure.

In this case, you can also try MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition; use the “Rebuild MBR” function to have a try.

Check Property of Hard Disk

If the above methods fail, you should consider that your hard drive is broken. Don’t panic; you can use the “Surface Test” function in MiniTool Partition Wizard to check your disk to see what happens.

Reinstall Operating System – the Trump Card

The last but not the least method to deal with the operating system not found problem is to reinstall your operating system. As long as the hard disk in your computer is not damaged physically, this can always be the most effective and most direct solution.

After the reinstallation of the operating system, all problems and errors will go away. The only thing you should notice is all the data on the hard drive may be damaged during reinstallation, so you should recover data first, as we said.

This post tells you how to reinstall Windows on a computer.

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Bottom Line

All in all, what we want to emphasize in this article is that operating System Not Found happens now and then due to various reasons. When that hits you, you shouldn’t cover your face and weep; on the contrary, please cheer up and take measures immediately to rescue data at first from the problematic computer.

Our suggestion is to use the Bootable Edition of MiniTool Power Data Recovery. It will help you recover important data easily and will not bring any damage to your hard disk/computer.

When data recovery after OS crashes is finished, you can try to fix the no operating system error by whatever means you like. Hope you all can find back valuable data you need and fix the problem successfully!

Should you have any questions about MiniTool software, please feel free to contact the support team via [email protected]. We will respond to your questions as soon as possible and give detailed instructions.