Guys, I have an IBM system running Win XP Home SPII (fully updated). I've had this problem off and on for a while, but it's persistent now: When I try to boot up the computer, it shows a couple of media errors and then says No Operating System found.

The problem started when my wife took the computer in to work about 20 months ago to have the tech guys set up their VPN so she could work from there. The tech guy told her there were viruses (despite our use of frequently updated McAffee VirusScan) and he cleaned them off. When we got the computer back, he'd partitioned the hard drive to show up as two separate drives, and pretty much blew it off when my wife asked him about it.

At any rate, occasionally the machine would give me that message when I tried to start it, but after a few tries it would always clear up. Not so now. I've been trying for days, I tried switching the cable from the hard drive to the motherboard, and I'm getting nothing. Anybody ever experience this or know what to do?

Possibly a issue with the boot partition is causing this problem to occur. Check the system logs (START/CONTROL PANEL/ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS/EVENT VIEWER) and see if there are any yellow or red alarms that show up regularly under the system log.

If the tech blows off adding that secondary partition, get a 2nd opinion from someone that you trust and knows what he is about. Odds are that the tech screwed up somehow.

Thanks, Nighthawke. Unfortunately I can't get into the control panel, so I took it in this morning. The good news is that my wife's boss said her work will pay for it since the problem showed up after they worked on it initially. Oh, well.