I tried to install the latest openSUSE OS, but when i restarted my laptop i got a “missing operating system” message.
I have pressed F12 to change the order of the boot menu, to boot from cd-rom. i’ve tried using an XP ISO image disc and my SUSE disc, but nothing works. Can anyone help??
Many thanks.
Hello, welcome here.
Please do not say things like “latest openSUSE”, but be specific. Some people might have other ideas about what the latest openSUSE is (12.2 MS 3?), in a year, somebody reading this thread might not even have the slightest idea wat it was when you wrote this and last but not least, you know it and writing it down takes certainly less characters to type then what you did now.
Also your description should contain more information. What did you use to install from? You say you restarted the system, but was that after many happy usage of openSUSE, or directly after install, or during install? Tell more about your hardware.
In short, do not assume we are clairvoyant here because we are all normal people that happen be be openSUSE users and no magicians. We will try to help you, but we need all theinformation you can give.
I have a Toshiba satellite laptop. it has (had!) windows xp. It had about 25 GB space on the hard drive.
I downloaded openSUSE 12.1.(released version) as single dvd ISO.
I burned to dvd using Cd Burner XP.
I then booted the system with the DVD in and followed the instructions on the screen. I used the recommended settings.
Everything seemed to go ok throughout each stage. But at the last stage the screen froze. I waited for about 20 minuites, in case it was part of the process, but nothing happened. None of the keyboard worked, so i powered the laptop down. when i powered it up again there was a blank screen with the “missing operating system” message.
I looked around the internet and thought it might be caused by faulty partitioning. I tried down loading a windows XP ISO image and burned it to disc. I went into the “phoenixBIOS setup utility” as its called on my laptop (by pressing “F2, for setup”…). I changed the order of the boot up so that CD-ROM drive is top of the list.
On starting up with this the drive started to work but stopped and the message came back.
I have also tried booting up with my SUSE disc in the drive. The drive starts up but i just end up with an “ISOLINUX 4.04 0x4eac1907 ETCD” title on a blank screen.
This is my first taste of Linux…i’m completely new to this.
I hope i’ve given enough info!
many thanks!
That is much better to give us an idea 
Thank you. I hope people will show up trying to help you asap.
On 2012-05-23 11:26, petew71 wrote:
>
> I have a Toshiba satellite laptop. it has (had!) windows xp. It had
> about 25 GB space on the hard drive.
> I downloaded openSUSE 12.1.(released version) as single dvd ISO.
> I burned to dvd using Cd Burner XP.
But you did not verify the burn.
> I then booted the system with the DVD in and followed the instructions
> on the screen. I used the recommended settings.
> Everything seemed to go ok throughout each stage. But at the last stage
> the screen froze. I waited for about 20 minuites, in case it was part of
> the process, but nothing happened. None of the keyboard worked, so i
> powered the laptop down. when i powered it up again there was a blank
> screen with the “missing operating system” message.
The message comes from a previous msdos/windows boot sector, so grub was
not installed.
> I looked around the internet and thought it might be caused by faulty
> partitioning. I tried down loading a windows XP ISO image and burned it
> to disc. I went into the “phoenixBIOS setup utility” as its called on my
> laptop (by pressing “F2, for setup”…). I changed the order of the boot
> up so that CD-ROM drive is top of the list.
> On starting up with this the drive started to work but stopped and the
> message came back.
That CD is not booting, but that is either the fault of the CD, the reader,
or the bios. When booting the CD fails, the computer tries booting from the
HD. It is not really related to the Linux install being borked.
> I have also tried booting up with my SUSE disc in the drive. The drive
> starts up but i just end up with an “ISOLINUX 4.04 0x4eac1907 ETCD”
> title on a blank screen.
Ufff. 
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
Is verifying the burn something the software would do automatically?..
No, yopu must select the check media on the media and also check the download by verifying the checksums
On 2012-05-24 00:46, petew71 wrote:
>
> Is verifying the burn something the software would do automatically?..
Depends. K3b does, if you ask it.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
Ok…Well, i created an emergency bootable disc using our Norton account. This got me access to a command line window.
It starts at-
**x:\windows\system32>
**Well, ive never even heard of an X drive! so, tried seeing what is in there.
**
x:\Dir
volume in drive x is boot
volume serial number is D60A-0DC2
Directory of x:
<Dir> Program files
<Dir> users
<Dir> Windows
**Is my system lost or is there potential for recovery?:\
Thanks for any help!
the out of place emoticons above should read…
: \
Apart from the fact that we do not use the \ character here very much and thus do not experience this specific emoticon by accident, when you put your computer text (even when it is MS-DOS one) between CODE tags, it will be emoticon free: http://forums.opensuse.org/english/information-new-users/advanced-how-faq-read-only/451526-posting-code-tags-guide.html
On 2012-05-25 11:56, petew71 wrote:
>
> Ok…Well, i created an emergency bootable disc using our Norton account.
> This got me access to a command line window.
> It starts at-
>
> *x:\windows\system32>
>
> *Well, ive never even heard of an X drive! so, tried seeing what is in
> there.
That’s the rescue CD system.
> *Is my system lost or is there potential for recovery?:\
Doesn’t that Norton disc have instructions? Help page?
However, now you have been able to boot from a CD, so you should be able to
boot from others. I would, for starters, check which partition is marked as
bootable. I’m not giving precise instructions not knowing what you have
available…
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
Some at my work is going to lend me an XP recovery disc next week. I’ll write back with how it goes. If it works out ok, i’ll write what i did in case it helps others. He recommended partitioning the hard drive before attempting any type of dual OS instillation, as a precaution.
BTW, thanks for the rescue CD system info!!
On 2012-05-27 11:56, petew71 wrote:
>
> Some at my work is going to lend me an XP recovery disc next week. I’ll
> write back with how it goes. If it works out ok, i’ll write what i did
> in case it helps others. He recommended partitioning the hard drive
> before attempting any type of dual OS instillation, as a precaution.
> BTW, thanks for the rescue CD system info!!
Before attempting that, check the partitions and see which one is marked
bootable. The XP recovery disk will not do it.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
Ok…I ran the recovery disk. It got me to the command line. I used fixmbr and restarted, with the recovery disk, eventually got windows XP back (which had some fun and games of it’s own to get up and running!)
I tried re-installing Suse, but could only run it in it’s safe mode. My laptop does not have the correct graphics card to run it properly, so the log in window was absent! So i deleted Suse from the hard drive but did not do it correctly! I had completely lost my windows!
Fortunately i had a complete copy on a separate hard drive and managed a complete re-install, using the recovery disk.
I’m now using puppy linux as my second OS…It’s well away from my hard drive! (Though i have probs with many web pages loading…) But, to be honest, ill be sticking mostly to windows… (sorry !)
Thanks for the helpful points i’ve been given!