i have an old acer 1362 as my second laptop. recently when i turned it on it came up with a message of "no operating system found" and a black screen. I have tried all sorts of things after looking on the net. I have bought a new hard drive and new operating system but nothing works. Everyone keeps talking about checking the Bios but i have no HDD settings visible to check or change.

I feel that an answer to this is staring me in the face but I just cant figure it out.
Can anyone help before it ends in the bin!!

Thanks

Everyone keeps talking about checking the Bios but i have no HDD settings visible to check or change.

Well that sounds like the problem. Assuming you are accessing the BIOS Setup Menu, you should see the drive listed. If it is not, and you are sure the cables are securely fastened, then it would appear the HD controller on your motherboard has failed.

Note the new drive would need to be formatted in order to install the OS, but the drive should still be detected and listed in the BIOS.

thanks for that. i dont know if the cables are connected correctly but i would think so as all of this happened quite quickly. I wouldnt know how to check anyway. Considering this is a 5 year old laptop would it worth getting it fixed?
cheers

Figuring that out is always the problem. The technician could open it up and see something obvious - like something loose, and fix it for an hour's worth of labor. But if it is the motherboard, then that would cost a lot more.

But in my opinion, a 5 year old notebook is nearing the end anyway. If you have not replaced it already, the battery will soon need to be replaced. The fan bearings will wear out and slow down (or stop) the fan, increasing heat which increases the aging process further.

If you can find a shop that gives estimates, you might do that, but many don't like to with laptops because, as it is with most electronics, troubleshooting the problem is what takes the most time and expertise. Once the problem is isolated, it really take little time or talent to fix it. So to give an estimate only to have the customer say nevermind is really a big business expense with zero returns. This is why many shops charge a fee for providing an estimate, which is then applied towards the final repair costs.

thanks for you help. I have the old HDD would it be possible to get old info from it as I have some photos. If I sell it as spares or repairs with new hdd and OS will it be safe. I mean there is no data left if i take out the old hdd?

thanks again

I have the old HDD would it be possible to get old info from it

That depends on if it is still good. Typically you can connect it another computer by installing it in an external enclosure, or by installing it as a secondary (not boot) drive in another computer using a Notebook to IDE Hard Drive Adapter. There are similar versions for SATA drives, if that is what yours is.

But before giving any hard drive away, you should always "wipe" them to ensure there is no personal data left behind. Formatting or deleting does not remove the data, it only marks the space as free, so just about anyone with an easily available recovery program can see and recover the data. Wipe programs overwrite every bit and byte on the disk with a bunch of 1s and 0s, ensuring no residual magnetized particles (previously saved data) is readable. I recommend Eraser as it uses widely recognized DBAN technology with a user friendly GUI front end.