You need to give more info, model,specs and age of the laptop would help. Given you are running XP it is probably getting old and the hard disk drive may have failed. A generation in human terms = 25 years, that ticks over every 9 months for computers.

You may have a hidden partion on the drive that will allow you to reinstall by pressing F9, 10, 11 or 12 at bootup but the most reliable way to do this will remove all of your files. (OLder Toshibas came with a disk set)

Sometimes the hard drive connector can fail to contact and will cause this message, unpluging the drive and reconnecting may fix the problem. Disconnect tthe power cable and battery before you try this.

The drive may be damaged but data may still be recoverable by way of removing the drive and connecting to another PC using an adapter (USB), you may need a techie for this.

If you look in the BIOS hardware list it may see the hard drive but that doesn't mean it will work.

To get out you can press the escape (Esc) key and don't save changes, or just hold your finger on the power button until it shuts down.

Unfortunately, the MS Answers forums implementation does not prompt for any system information when a new question is asked, so we next to nothing about your system.

Not knowing fundamental information about a problem prolongs the frustration and agony of resolving these issues but that is the way they choose to run things here.

Thank you MS Answers owners, for continuing to make the resolution of simple problems as frustrating and time consuming as possible.

Please provide additional information about your system as best you can:

What is your system make and model?

Describe your current antivirus and anti malware situation:  Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), McAfee, Symantec, Norton, Spybot, AVG, Avira!,  Panda, Trend Micro, CA, Defender, ZoneAlarm, PC Tools, Comodo, etc.

Was the issue preceded by a power interruption, aborted restart, or improper shutdown?  (this includes plug pulling, power buttons, removing the battery, etc.)

Does the afflicted system have a working CD/DVD drive (internal or external)?

Do you have a genuine bootable XP installation CD that is the same Service Pack as your installed Service Pack (this is not the same as any Recovery CDs that came with your system)?

If the system used to work properly, what do you think might have changed since the last time it did work properly?

Assuming your system has a working CD drive:


If I were you I would start by running a chkdsk with error correction (always first for that error).

If you are not sure what you have for bootable media, make yourself a Hiren's Boot CD, boot on that into the Mini XP mode and run the chkdsk from there. 

Here's how:

Make yourself a Hiren's Boot CD which you can download from here:

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

The ZIP file is large, so the download will probably take a little while to complete bit it is worth it.  Then unzip the download to extract the Hirens.BootCD.ISO file that will be used to create your new bootable CD.

Creating a bootable CD from a .ISO file is not the same as just copying the .ISO file to a blank CD.  You have to use software that understands how to burn a .ISO file to a CD to create a bootable CD.

In the Hiren's ZIP file are the BurnToCD.cmd file that you can double click to launch it, but I have never used it and prefer to use ImgBurn.

If you need a free and easy CD burning software package, here is a popular free program:

http://www.imgburn.com/

When installing ImgBurn, DO NOT install anything from UniBlue or the Ask toolbar (never install the ASK toolbar for anything).

Here are some instructions for ImgBurn:

http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61

It would be a good idea to test your new bootable CD on a computer that is working.

You may need to adjust the computer BIOS settings to use the CD ROM drive as the first boot device instead of the hard disk. 

These adjustments are  made before Windows tries to load.  If you miss it, you will have to reboot the system again.

When booting on the Hiren's CD you will see a menu of options.  Choose the Mini XP option.  Then it will appear that Windows is being loaded and you will be presented with a desktop that has the look and feel of the Windows Explorer interface you are already used to using.

One way to check the disk for errors is to open My Computer and right click your afflicted drive and choose Properties, Tools, Error-checking, Check Now... put a check mark in both the boxes and then Start.

Sometimes that doesn't work, so you can also click Start, Run and in the box enter:

cmd

Click OK to open a Command Prompt window and enter the following command (assuming XP is installed on your C drive)

chkdsk  c:  /r

This disk checking can take a long time (perhaps several to many hours) depending on the size of the volume, the amount of data on the volume and what the disk checking finds to do.

Let chkdsk finish and correct any problems it might find. 

It may take a long time for chkdsk to complete or it may appear to be 'stuck'.  Be patient.  If the HDD light is still flashing, chkdsk is doing something.  Keep an eye on the percentage amount to be sure it is still making progress.  It may even appear to go backwards sometimes.

You may have to run the chkdsk  /r  it more than once.

hi my laptop is about 1 year old and when a turn it on a go to my user and when it loads it goes on to a blue screen saying there is a problem then it restarts it and it keeps coming up but there is no way of seeing the rest of it what should i do ?

Please restart your computer and start pressing the F8 key to get to the advanced boot menu.



Select Disable automatic restart on system failure.
When the blue screen comes up write down what it says (stop codes, etc) and post it in your next reply so that people will be able to help you.

thanks will go try that

Is there I can do about this?? Please.