No operating system found

[Woodman]

Compaq Presario 2200.

The hdd failed after 2 years so installed a replacement and trying to partition/format using the Operating System CD supplied with the hardware.  Despite setting bios to boot from dvd/cd I keep getting the error message "no operating system found" which flickers on screen line one as if something is looping.

Any ideas please :-?

Thanks

[patio]

What type of OS CD is this and what OS are you installing ? ?

[Woodman]

Thanks for response.

The CD is "Operating System CD Microsoft Windows XP Home SP1a" also printed on the cd is "Only for distribution with an HP or Compaq PC"

Also tried an OEM version cd of XP Home & got the same error.

[patio]

Travel to bootdisk.com and grab a WinME bootdisk with CDRom support....use it to create a bootable floppy.
Boot to the floppy...it will load CDRom drivers.
Have the CD in the drive.
At the A: prompt type D: and hit Enter.
Type setup and hit Enter and you should be good to go.

Note: If you have more than one HDD in that machine your CDRom drive letter might be higher i.e. E: F: or G:....

[dl65]

Woodman..... Have you tried going into the bios and changing the boot sequence to....... cd-rom first boot , saving the change and exiting bios .......... then put the xp/sp1 cd in the cd-rom .
Now reboot the machine and windows should begin the format and install process .

dl65  

[Woodman]

Patio - sorry, I should have advised that the Presario 2200 does not have a floppy drive.

dl65 - yes, several times to no good outcome

Compaq Presario 2200.

Despite setting bios to boot from dvd/cd I keep getting the error message "no operating system found" which flickers on screen line one as if something is looping.

[Dilbert]

If you have a valid Windows CD in the drive, and it's booting to CD first, there should not be error messages about your operating system; it should be taking you to the install process.

The only reason I can think of that could cause this is if the computer is not reading from the CD, though it still has power. This is most commonly caused by a loose IDE cable connection from the CD-ROM to the motherboard. Power down the system and check the IDE cables.

While you're at it, re-plug the IDE cable for the hard drive into both sides. My sister has an eMachine and sometimes she accidentally knocks that cheap cable loose. Re-plugging the cable fixes this problem.

So, in summary:

1. Unplug and plug in the IDE cables for the hard drive and try to boot from it.
2. If that fails, do the same for the CD-ROM IDE cables and try to boot from it.

[Woodman]

If you have a valid Windows CD in the drive, and it's booting to CD first, there should not be error messages about your operating system; it should be taking you to the install process.

So, in summary:
1. Unplug and plug in the IDE cables for the hard drive and try to boot from it.
2. If that fails, do the same for the CD-ROM IDE cables and try to boot from it.

Dilbert - Sorry, I obviously didn't give enough info in the OP.  

The OS cd is the one which came with the hardware when it was bought and seems to contain all the necessary files such as Setup.exe.

1.  The Presario 2200 is a laptop therefore no IDE cables.  The hard drive is straight out of the packet, not even formatted yet so no real point in trying to boot from it.

2.  Have re-seated the dvd and retried - no go.

Got me a bit beat...

[dl65]

 Woodman..... So you opened up the laptop and replaced the HD yourself........  Is it possible that it's not installed properly ?

Have you checked in the bios to see if there new HD is being seen?

dl65