Help! Serious Windows problem

woldsweather · Oct 22, 2025

I left my PC processing a set of astrophotography images. An operation that can take up a couple of hours.

When I came back later there's a message that effectively says it can't find an operating system.

Tried booting holding F2 F10 F11 del escape. Even o ne that has a choice of selecting recovery still returns to the same message.

What should I do?

Try3 · Oct 22, 2025

Replace the disk and restore your most recent system image to it.

Denis

woldsweather · Oct 22, 2025

Where would my system image be ? Think I know the answer but I back up to NAS. Never understood what you do with a system lmage.

Are you saylng the hard drive had failed?

OAT · Oct 22, 2025

woldsweather said:
Are you saylng the hard drive had failed?

Most likely, based on the information given.
If you have a bootable USB, you could try to gain access to it.

Try3 · Oct 22, 2025

Yes, it sounds like the HDD has failed.

Your system image will be whever you put it.
To understand how to restore a system image, you'll need to study the user manual or help system of the uttility you used to make the system image.
If you did not make a system image you'll have to clean install Windows.

Denis

Ben Myers · Oct 22, 2025

If it is a desktop, you might try removing and reinstalling the cable that connects the hard drive to the motherboard.

Ben

woldsweather · Oct 22, 2025

Thanks I'll try teseating the cable to the SSD.

F9 gets me to choosing UEFI boot or legacy and though I can move between the two I can't get to any more choices.

I ran the quick hard drive test and it passed.

bobkn · Oct 22, 2025

woldsweather said:
Where would my system image be ? Think I know the answer but I back up to NAS. Never understood what you do with a system lmage.

Are you saylng the hard drive had failed?

A system image is a file that saves the state of the drive when the image was created. Backup software that does it may also permit incremetal backups, where you get smaller files that contain the changes since the original image was made.

I'm currently using Macrium Reflect to image C:. Reflect can also create a bootable USB "rescue" drive that is used to restore the image to the drive. (Or a new drive, if it's necessary.)

I presume that the backups you've made on a NAS are data only. Is that correct?

I'm unfamilar with a "quick hard drive test" that isn't run from Windows. What's that?

woldsweather · Oct 22, 2025

bobkn said:
A system image is a file that saves the state of the drive when the image was created. Backup software that does it may also permit incremetal backups, where you get smaller files that contain the changes since the original image was made.

I'm currently using Macrium Reflect to image C:. Reflect can also create a bootable USB "rescue" drive that is used to restore the image to the drive. (Or a new drive, if it's necessary.)

I presume that the backups you've made on a NAS are data only. Is that correct?

I'm unfamilar with a "quick hard drive test" that isn't run from Windows. What's that?

It was an option in the BIOS. Yes data on second HD and on double HD in NAS.

bobkn · Oct 22, 2025

woldsweather said:
It was an option in the BIOS. Yes data on second HD and on double HD in NAS.

If that option is present in my systems, I've never noticed. Sounds useful.

I hope that the drive is really OK, and that your Windows is repairable, but I'm not the person to advise you on that.

I strongly recommend that you acquire imaging/backup software. I'm not sure what to recommend that the moment. Macrium Reflect has gone subscription only. (It's still possible to find downloads of the free version online, but it's off support.)

I forgot that Windows includes a drive imaging capability, but I've never used it. It's apparently based on ancient code.

starchase · Oct 22, 2025

@woldsweather This on rare occasion has happened to me and of course I freaked out. But I realized that I have a couple other HDD in the PC and one of them still had a bootable partition on it and the boot order had (for some unexplainable reason) changed. So I entered the BIOS and corrected the boot order and I was back in business. It would be nice if your issue was this simple.

Winuser · Oct 22, 2025

If you're data is on another drive I recommend unplugging all other drives so you can work on your system drive without the worry of your data getting lost.

Spunk · Oct 22, 2025

Is this computer the HP Omen desktop you have listed in your Profile?
If so, It shows you are running Windows 10 and you are posting in the Windows Eleven Forum?

If this is the HP Desktop, when you start your computer, press F10 repeatedly to enter Setup (Bios)
In the Bios, go to System Information. This will list all of your hardware, including your HDD/SSD(s)
If there is no Disk listed, than the drive has failed and needs to be replaced.

As stated, on a different computer, you can burn an ISO image of Windows 11 installer to a USB Flash drive using the Media Creation Tool on the same page

Download Windows 11

If the Windows Disk is showing in the Bios
Plug the Windows installer flash drive into the troubled HP desktop, start the computer and press F9 repeatedly for a one time boot menu.
Select the Flash drive to boot from.

Choose your Language, then click Repair Your Computer
This opens the Troubleshooting menu, choose Advanced.
First try a Startup Repair.

woldsweather · Oct 22, 2025

Spunk said:
Is this computer the HP Omen desktop you have listed in your Profile?
If so, It shows you are running Windows 10 and you are posting in the Windows Eleven Forum?

If this is the HP Desktop, when you start your computer, press F10 repeatedly to enter Setup (Bios)
In the Bios, go to System Information. This will list all of your hardware, including your HDD/SSD(s)
If there is no Disk listed, than the drive has failed and needs to be replaced.

As stated, on a different computer, you can burn an ISO image of Windows 11 installer to a USB Flash drive using the Media Creation Tool on the same page

Download Windows 11

If the Windows Disk is showing in the Bios
Plug the Windows installer flash drive into the troubled HP desktop, start the computer and press F9 repeatedly for a one time boot menu.
Select the Flash drive to boot from.

Choose your Language, then click Repair Your Computer
This opens the Troubleshooting menu, choose Advanced.
First try a Startup Repair.

Hi Yes HP Omen W11 Pro. So far I'm up to booting from usb chkdsk and dism etc. Left running and gone to bed. Looks like it'll take a while.

Spunk · Oct 22, 2025

If Check Disk takes overnight chances are great the drive is failing or has failed and needs to be replaced.

NormanF · Oct 22, 2025

Look in the BIOS and see if your drive exists. Try to do a Startup Repair. If that fails, do restore Windows. If it doesn't boot at all, get the drive replaced ASAP.

Try3 · Oct 22, 2025

woldsweather said:
So far I'm up to booting from usb

I sometimes use Notepad's FileOpen dialog as a rudimentary explorer when booted up from a USB.
You can use it to get a basic File explorer-like display of your drives so you can see what's what very quickly & clearly.

You can even get it to help with rescuing disks before trying to reinstall anything.
Use InstallUSB Notepad as a rudimentary File explorer to backup files [post #33] - TenForums
The Macrium boot USB has its own file explorer built into it so there's no need to use Notepad as an alternative.

Best of luck,
Denis

dacrone · Oct 22, 2025

you can launch that from command prompt too

Code:

powershell -command "Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms; $f=New-Object Windows.Forms.SaveFileDialog; $f.ShowDialog() | Out-Null; echo $f.FileName"

obviously powershell too... just take off the
powershell -command
and the " "

Try3 · Oct 22, 2025

dacrone said:
you can launch that from command prompt too

You're talking about Notepad?
I referred to using its Open file dialog rather than its Save file dialog since I think that reduces the scope for mistakes deleting information by overwriting.
And I just launch it by typing the command
Notepad
then using its menu bar.
Or perhaps I misunderstood your post

All the best,
Denis

dacrone · Oct 22, 2025

no. i'm talking about open/save as window. run the command...

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