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"Missing Operating System"

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peppergomez

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Sep 15, 2011
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So it looks like Windows 10 cannot find my OS and therefore wont' boot up. Yay.

I've detached all other drives except the the 4 on the RAID w/ Windows 10 installed.. In the BIOS, I see those drives are recognized. I have unplugged and reconnected all the SATA cables and loaded optimized defaults on my BIOS, to no avail.

I don't have a CD/DVD drive on my comp so I guess my only option is install something on a thumbdrive that will let me recover Windows? Can anyone suggest where I can get that? I'm typing on my laptaop and can install something on a thumbdrive,

Any other suggestions out there if there are other options?

Thanks.
 
was this working before? is this the same system from all your threads? if you have another win10 system search for "windows to go" or grab a copy of hirens. oh and I grabbed a screen cap for ya

upload_2019-6-19_18-50-19.png
 
Thanks a bunch for those tips, will check out both.

Yeah, same system. Been squirrely for weeks now....picture vanishing, GPU fans spinning madly for apparently no reason, dunno WTF is going on. The OS vanishing takes it to another level.
 
Soooooooooooooo I had this same issue over and over again, random, but often enough to be annoying. Turned out it was a loose sata cable and THEN the cable just went bad, likely at the connection end. I replaced ALL cables and haven't had an issue since.
 
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“Missing Operatong System” is usually an error coming from the Windows (and MSDOS) MBR boot code itself. It means that there is no active partition in the MBR partition table to hand off the boot process to.

UEFI boots usually shouldn’t see this error since the firmware boot process is a somewhat different.

If your system was set up in UEFI boot mode and your systems settings have changed from UEFI to Legacy/CSM/BiOS boot mode, you might see this error.
 
I guess replacing the SATA cables would be a smart move/low hanging fruiit, good suggestion. But since the drives are seen in the BIOS, doesn't taht indicate the SATA cables are good?



Roger that re: the CMOS battery.




Will I be able to tell in the BIOS if my system is set to UEFI or MBR? I did set the BIOS to optimized defaults.
 
ryan_975 said:
“Missing Operatong System” is usually an error coming from the Windows (and MSDOS) MBR boot code itself. It means that there is no active partition in the MBR partition table to hand off the boot process to.

UEFI boots usually shouldn’t see this error since the firmware boot process is a somewhat different.

If your system was set up in UEFI boot mode and your systems settings have changed from UEFI to Legacy/CSM/BiOS boot mode, you might see this error.
Click to expand...

I'm not entirely sure how windows deals with an install reference RAID, but I know if I install windows with 3 drives in the system, all three drives need to be in the system to boot properly. I see they removed all drives but the raid ones... So maybe that's causing part of the issue.
 
Tried switrching the SATA cables but same result.

So I created the ISO2USB using the HBCD_PE_x64.iso according to the instructions on https://www.hirensbootcd.org/usb-booting/ and then booted from that USB drive but still encountered the message that the operating system was missing.

All 4 drives in the RAID are recognized in the BIOS so it appears that all 4 are working properly. No ***ing idea why all of a sudden the OS cannot be found.

Not sure how to proceed at this point. I don't have Windows on disc.
 
peppergomez said:
Tried switrching the SATA cables but same result.

So I created the ISO2USB using the HBCD_PE_x64.iso according to the instructions on https://www.hirensbootcd.org/usb-booting/ and then booted from that USB drive but still encountered the message that the operating system was missing.

All 4 drives in the RAID are recognized in the BIOS so it appears that all 4 are working properly. No ***ing idea why all of a sudden the OS cannot be found.

Not sure how to proceed at this point. I don't have Windows on disc.
Click to expand...

Did you find legacy/UEFI in the BIOS?
 
I just saw UEFI w regard to the bootable ISO2USB. for the RAID SSD drives w. the OS on them it was P4.

But the onscreen prompt at the BIOS splash screen indicated UEFI Bios


PS Are there tools in Windows that monitor drive or OS health to warn a user if there are impending issues? I was thinking that the issues I was having earlier were related to my GPUs.
 
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Hmm trying to create a recovery USB in Windows and followed the sequence to create it (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/windows-10-recovery-options#section5) only to get "There was a problem running this tool. We're not sure what happened....Error code 0x80070057 0xA0018" which appears to maybe be an error when trying to format a partition on a disc but I'm not sure how it applies to creating this recovery USB.



Edit- might be due to the USB drive being formatted at FAT32. Reformatting it as NTFSand will try again.
 
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Is is Raid 0 (one of those drives could be bad)? Regardless you need to download the latest win 10 install onto a usb flash drive since if nothing else you can do a fresh clean install.
 
peppergomez said:
So it looks like Windows 10 cannot find my OS and therefore wont' boot up. Yay.

I've detached all other drives except the the 4 on the RAID w/ Windows 10 installed.. In the BIOS, I see those drives are recognized. I have unplugged and reconnected all the SATA cables and loaded optimized defaults on my BIOS, to no avail.

I don't have a CD/DVD drive on my comp so I guess my only option is install something on a thumbdrive that will let me recover Windows? Can anyone suggest where I can get that? I'm typing on my laptaop and can install something on a thumbdrive,

Any other suggestions out there if there are other options?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Windows 10 IS your OS so it's the other way around. Your hardware can't find Windows 10 or any other OS on your storage. Your problems are 99% sure caused by your raid array malfunctioning. It's a very bad idea to create raid arrays using consumer hardware and especially with Windows. It will bite you sooner than later.

The reason why the array is malfunctioning may be your recent system instability - and that may be caused by a plethora of things. My experience has been that if the system starts throwing totally random errors, try replacing the power supply as a first thing.
 
I think it is RAID 5.



B00nie, what do you mean re: "consumer hardware"? I'm not disagreeing with you b/c I don't know enough to do so, but I have never read as much, that using consumer SSD drives and Windows for RAID is a bad idea.
I'll look at getting a new power supply. Is there a way to test if my current one, which has more than enough power, is malfunctioning?
 
None of the repair options on the Windows Installation Media USB drive are able to do anything even though my drive is being recognized. I think a complete reformat/reinstall of Windows is probably the best approach.

Is there anyway of recovering any of the files on my drive before I do that? There's stuff on it that I would like to save.

I am in the command prompt from windows troubleshooting and the C drive is showing up when I type "diskpart" and then "list volume"

Fs - RAW (I would have thought this would be NTFS)
Type - Partition
Size - 350MB (This I would expect to be the size of the drive, which is 600+ GB)
Status - Healthy
 
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The C: drive in the PE command prompt isn’t necessarily going to be the same drive that was labeled as C: in your Windows installation, especially since you’ve changed your drive configuration.

It sounds like the array configuration has been lost. You might be able to rebuild it.... but whether that’s possible and how to go about it depends entirely on what RAID controller you’re using.
 
Never raid5 your boot drive. A problem in any one of the individual disks drives could potentially prevent you from booting. And without being in the OS, it can't make any repairs or recoveries (i'm assuming you're using soft raid here?)
​
Stick with Raid 1 for boot, and have the Raid 5 for everything else. That way if you have a faulty boot, it's as easy as swapping your boot drive.

And I hope you have an offline backup your Raid5, and weren't just using that array as your only "backup?"
 
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What mode was the BIOS in, before you did the 'optimized defaults' ?
If your making a USB recovery drive, youll need the raid drivers on it probably so it can see the raid array
it wasnt specifically mentioned, but I assume this is an onboard raid controller, not an add in raid card?
what motherboard ?
 
Yeah, onboard RAID controller. Mobo is Mobo ASUS MAXIMUS IV EXTREME (REV 3.0)

Not sure what you mean re: the BIOS mode. It was the default BIOS menu that appears when I press Delete.

Where would find the necessary RAID drivers?



I was thinking one solution possibly would be to buy 2 new SSDs and put them in the best RAID for boot - RAID 1? - then install Windows on them. From there, once in Windows, attach the 4 SSDs I'm currently using now that are RAID 5 and see if I can save my data off of them, then reformat them keeping them as RAID 5 for storage and not for the OS boot drive. Is this a reasonable plan? If so, can anyone recommend a good SSD drive to buy? It doesn't have to be screaming fast or have tons of storage - less than 1TB or 500GB is fine. It should just be reliable. Though I am out of SATA connections on my mobo and would need to remove either the 4 HDDs I have in RAID 5 or the 4 SSDs that are currently malfunctioning. I see there are SSDs that work in PCI-E slots but I don't think I have one available b/c I have 2 GTX 680 cards in SLI.
 
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by BIOS mode, I meant what was it before you did the reset? UEFI mode or Legacy BIOS mode?

Id make it easy, just get a Samsung Pro SSD for the boot drive, might have to use the other sata controller so that you can leave the ne doing the current raid5 alone, dont involve raid on the boot drive, reinstall windows and see if you can go into the raid bios (Intel is usually CTRL i) and see if it still shows the raid5 array
 
peppergomez said:
I think it is RAID 5.



B00nie, what do you mean re: "consumer hardware"? I'm not disagreeing with you b/c I don't know enough to do so, but I have never read as much, that using consumer SSD drives and Windows for RAID is a bad idea.
I'll look at getting a new power supply. Is there a way to test if my current one, which has more than enough power, is malfunctioning?
Click to expand...
By consumer hardware I mean the typical fake raid controllers built in motherboards. If you would have a real raid card with an onboard processor, it would be more stable and you wouldn't have this problem now. Hard drives themselves are not the problem, the raid controller is. Also I wouldn't bother using raid on Windows, it has enough problems as it is and you never know when a Microsoft update chews away your raid array settings and whatnot because Microsoft decides they're not necessary :)
 
Hey folks

Thanks for the replies...my system is totally hosed and it seemjs like it's either a PSU or mobo issue. Reinstalled Windows/reformatted my drives, and after a few hours of use the system locked up. When I rebooted, the video cards were not recognized and nor was the Operating System again. In the BIOS my drives don't appear as boot options, only Intel One and Windows Boot Manager do.

At this point, I don't know what to do...throw in the towel on recovering this system and buy a new one? I would like to determine where the problem lies so I can possibly sell off the rest of the parts.
 
peppergomez said:
At this point, I don't know what to do...throw in the towel on recovering this system and buy a new one? I would like to determine where the problem lies so I can possibly sell off the rest of the parts.
Click to expand...

Well, Where you stand right now, I think the troubleshooting method is just to start replacing parts and see if it helps.

If that's more appealing that buying a new system outright, I couldn't say. You may get lucky and the first part you replaced fixes it. Then again, you could end up building nearly an entire second computer anyway, and burning a lot of frustrating time troubleshooting.

I am assuming you've already ruled out RAM, bad cables, and bad storage, which are the low hanging fruit and can be pretty easily checked without starting to throw a lot of money or spare parts at it.

I'll also second (or third or whatever) the opinion: don't have your Windows boot device on RAID. Even if it's just a small 120G SSD or whatever, and everything else is on your RAID.
 
peppergomez said:
Hey folks

Thanks for the replies...my system is totally hosed and it seemjs like it's either a PSU or mobo issue. Reinstalled Windows/reformatted my drives, and after a few hours of use the system locked up. When I rebooted, the video cards were not recognized and nor was the Operating System again. In the BIOS my drives don't appear as boot options, only Intel One and Windows Boot Manager do.

At this point, I don't know what to do...throw in the towel on recovering this system and buy a new one? I would like to determine where the problem lies so I can possibly sell off the rest of the parts.
Click to expand...
biggest problem is running a raid setup which makes trouble shooting and maintain 10 times more complicated and for what? just use the other drives for storage and BACKUP images...case closed

Yop shouldn't be running a raid setup plain and simple....reinstall the os on the fatest ssd and use the other drives for backup and storage
 
It's odd to me that all the tech ppl I asked about creating a RAID drive for my home system were enthusiastic about the idea. Not saying you guys' advice about not doing so is off, in fact in light of events it seems right on, just how it's frustrating how one can research advice about doing a home build and ask IT people and not encounter any info dissuading the use of a RAID drive in a home system or for the OS drive. Live and learn, and probably avoid home builds going forward b/c god only knows what other things I would **** up if I make another.
 
peppergomez said:
It's odd to me that all the tech ppl I asked about creating a RAID drive for my home system were enthusiastic about the idea. Not saying you guys' advice about not doing so is off, in fact in light of events it seems right on, just how it's frustrating how one can research advice about doing a home build and ask IT people and not encounter any info dissuading the use of a RAID drive in a home system or for the OS drive. Live and learn, and probably avoid home builds going forward b/c god only knows what other things I would **** up if I make another.
Click to expand...

No, no, no, keep building home computers, it is a blast and fun. Just stick with Raid 1 for a boot raid setup, that is all.
 
Raid is fine for more experienced players.....You were asking where to find a proper driver? Seriously? The people right here some of the most impressive setups among us are NOT using raid for there os drives or in many cases any of there drives. Its in most cases beneficial in a mission critical commercial setting..as in NOT for home use.
 
Is the Asus Intel or AMD? If you need to inject drivers or place onto a flash drive for repair, the procedure is the same but these links may help (Intel) (AMD). Sorry if its a done deal but I've been in some pickles and long nights of googling got me through. What I would do is get into a WinPE environment to copy off the important stuff and tear down the array to build it again, perhaps get a USB drive amd take periodic image backups using EaseUS Todo (in fact that is what I do with my HTPC/NAS running RAID-0).
 
primetime said:
Raid is fine for more experienced players.....You were asking where to find a proper driver? Seriously? The people right here some of the most impressive setups among us are NOT using raid for there os drives or in many cases any of there drives. Its in most cases beneficial in a mission critical commercial setting..as in NOT for home use.
Click to expand...
If a rand controller needs a driver to work, run, not walk away.
 
Didnt read every msg in this topic but did any point out that sometimes bios just screws u up and changes boot options from windows hdd to smth else and u gotta change boot source again before u can continue to windows..?
 
or, if he reset the bios and now cant see the boot options he originally had, there is a BIOS option that he needs to change to the original
 
Hey folks,

Thanks to the late comers for chiming in w/ advice. At this point I think it's a done deal in terms of prob the PSU or mobo being faulty. What with the drive failures, the OS missing, the lockups, and now the GPUs not being detected.

So....I am now in the market for a new mobo, SSD (not SATA, but the faster kind that goes in a PCI-E 3 slot), PSU, and I guess CPU. My needs are mostly photo editing of 7k RAW files and casual gaming (not fast online shooters where fast frames are needed) at 2k monitor resolution (maybe 4k if there is a reasonably priced - under $800 - good quality 4k monitor for photo editing and gaming released this year). I'm looking to spend $1000-1200 or so max, in case folks have any suggestions. I do plan to keep my case, RAM, and drives: CORSAIR XMS3 8GB DDR3
Case COOLER MASTER CM Storm Trooper

Thanks for suggestions.
 
peppergomez said:
Hey folks,

Thanks to the late comers for chiming in w/ advice. At this point I think it's a done deal in terms of prob the PSU or mobo being faulty. What with the drive failures, the OS missing, the lockups, and now the GPUs not being detected.

So....I am now in the market for a new mobo, SSD (not SATA, but the faster kind that goes in a PCI-E 3 slot), PSU, and I guess CPU. My needs are mostly photo editing of 7k RAW files and casual gaming (not fast online shooters where fast frames are needed) at 2k monitor resolution (maybe 4k if there is a reasonably priced - under $800 - good quality 4k monitor for photo editing and gaming released this year). I'm looking to spend $1000-1200 or so max, in case folks have any suggestions. I do plan to keep my case, RAM, and drives: CORSAIR XMS3 8GB DDR3
Case COOLER MASTER CM Storm Trooper

Thanks for suggestions.
Click to expand...
might as well start over with new 7nm AMD setup....heck the timing is dam near perfect......it what i would do anyway
 
You’re not going to get a new motherboard that’ll let you keep your DDR3 ram. 16GB DDR4 of a decent speed can be found for around $100.
 
Alrighty then, thanks for the suggestions.

Any particular brands or models of mobo, pus, and video card suggested? I've been an Intel and NVIDIA user for about a decade now, after a frustrating experience w/ two Radeon card in crossfire years ago.
Looking to keep the budget at about $1000-1200.
 
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