Installing Operating System [Serious] Help Please

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Guide community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

ivinvirus

Estimable
Nov 8, 2015
18
0
4,560
Hi guys, so few days ago I found my old rotten school laptop, I wasn't admin on it so I thought I might as well just take its harddrive out and format it with sata usb cable and reinstall operating system.

I did format the drive through disk management, used full format. The drive is completely empty and reinserted into the laptop. now when I start the laptop I get the error "An operating system wasn't found. Try disconnecting any drives that don't contain an operating system"

I did expect something like this but now I have no idea on how to install an operating system on it, reason being the laptop doesn't contain a DVD drive.

Please help, I have installed operating system once which was to enter the dvd and start pc and it should help you out as you enter your product key.

I don't have the dvd on me, I do have USB with 16gb capacity, I do have windows 8 product key which works. but please i don't know the steps from now on, help please, pretty please, god bless you

ps: I'm not getting any sort of boot menu, just the message I stated above
 
Solution


The image is kind of hard to make out, but that does look like the CMOS battery. Unplug that for a while, and you should be good. Make sure the laptop power, and battery is also unplugged

ivinvirus

Estimable
Nov 8, 2015
18
0
4,560


just read an online article, they said remove it for 25 minutes, Its 12 night time at my place, is there any way i can receive help from you tomorow? pretty please?
 

boodaddy

Estimable
Nov 7, 2015
15
0
4,570


lol 25 minutes. Sure if it makes you feel better:) If you never have dissembled a laptop it's not that easy for a first timer, but I will try to help as much as I can.
 

boodaddy

Estimable
Nov 7, 2015
15
0
4,570


Skip to the "Forgotten Power-on password" section and try the steps they provide to reset it.
 

ivinvirus

Estimable
Nov 8, 2015
18
0
4,560


is that the battery pack(the blue chip)? sorry for late reply, internet problems...
http://i.imgur.com/j264H9a.jpg
 

boodaddy

Estimable
Nov 7, 2015
15
0
4,570


The image is kind of hard to make out, but that does look like the CMOS battery. Unplug that for a while, and you should be good. Make sure the laptop power, and battery is also unplugged
 
Solution

ivinvirus

Estimable
Nov 8, 2015
18
0
4,560


Unplugged the battery, took out the bootable usb, nothing was attached, took out the CMOS battery for 25 minutes. plugged everything back, went to BIOS, got a error saying bad checksum and the lock appeared again :/ no luck. Help? any suggestions please?
 

ivinvirus

Estimable
Nov 8, 2015
18
0
4,560
THANK YOU SO SO MUCH boodaddy, you're a living legend. Here's the summarised steps I took,

1. formatted the harddrive using full format from disk management
2. Opened the laptop case, took out the cmos battery for 2 minutes
3. inserted laptop battery back(cmos batter is still out), went to BIOS, changed the settings on boot options to defailt
4. restarted the pc, tapped F12, selected USB, and its done :) its installing right now. pretty happy
 

boodaddy

Estimable
Nov 7, 2015
15
0
4,570



Awesome bro. Glad it is working, and you got everything sorted out!