I have just tried to use my old laptop (Fujitsu Lifebook S Series) after 2 years of no use. When I turned it on, it now says "No Operating System found". I have searched everywhere for the recovery CDs/original CDs but cant find them anywhere. What do I do? the only ones I can find are to this PC which is HP so will not work.

Hi Disie and Welcome.

I have searched everywhere for the recovery CDs/original CDs but cant find them anywhere. What do I do? the only ones I can find are to this PC which is HP so will not work.

That would be illegal anyway. The license for the HP is for that HP, and no other computer.

Is there still a hard disk drive in that notebook? Leaving it turned off for a couple years should not cause the OS to go away, or become corrupt. It sounds like data on the harddrive is corrupt, or missing, or the hard drive is missing, or the BIOS does not know where to go look for it. I would boot into the BIOS Setup Menu and make sure the date and time are correct, and the harddrive and optical drive (CD or DVD) are both recognized, then "Save and Exit". It will reboot, then see what happens.

If you cannot find the install disks and you still need to reinstall Windows, then you will have to buy a new copy of Windows, and download all the drivers from the notebook maker's site.

Do you know why it was set aside for 2 years in the first place?

The laptop has been set aside because I dont really need it! I have a PC set up with broadband for home use and I have a work supplied brand new laptop which I use when I travel. I only want to use the notebook now because I thought I could use it to back up my ITunes and music library.

Can you borrow an XP CD to use the Recovery Console tools to try to repair your machine? If so, attempt to recover the existing O/S through the Recovery Console.

Use this to get yourself into the Recovery Console; Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console for advanced users

When you get to the command prompt, firstly type in chkdsk c: /f and hit ENTER. If this fails use chkdsk c: /r and hit ENTER. If errors are found and corrected, attempt a normal boot.

If it doesn't boot, use the CD to get back to the command prompt as above. Then type in bootcfg /rebuild. A discussion about the Bootcfg command and its uses Attempt a normal boot.

If it doesn't boot, use the CD to get back to the command prompt as above. Next replace the potentially damaged ntldr and ntdetect.com files. You can copy fresh files from the XP CD using the COPY command.

At the Command Prompt type the following (where "X" is your CD-Rom drive letter) allowing the files to overwrite the old files
COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C:
COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:

Attempt to boot normally. If it doesn't boot, again start with the CD to get to the command prompt. Type in fixboot c: and hit ENTER. When it finishes, attempt a normal boot.

If it doesn't boot, again start with the CD to get to the command prompt. Type in fixmbr c: and hit ENTER. When it finishes, attempt a normal boot.

If all this fails to recover the existing O/S, then you may have to purchase an XP CD and reinstall XP on that machine.

Thanks Dan. Will have to see if I can find someone else with XP - obviously I have anoerh set of XP but its for my HP machine. If I can find one, I will try all the instructions you've suggested and see if I can recover. Many thanks for taking the trouble.

If you can get to the Recovery Console on your HP CD, that's all you need to try what I outlined above.