pobnospam******.com wrote:
> Its a Dell Laptop L400. I used Norton Partition Magic and now I get No
> operating system found. I tried placing a Windows XP (full version-not
> upgrade version) and I continue to get No operating system found.
>
> If I go out and buy a new hard drive, will the laptop still work ?

Yes. But you don't have to replace the drive. At least not yet. Clearly
your partitions are screwed up or corrupted. But the drive itself is
probably fine.

First check a few things in the bios.

Check the boot order (aka startup sequence and a few similar sounding
things) includes the CD drive before the hard drive.

Try to boot from the CD again. If you can get somewhere, then just redo
the partitions reinstall the OS.

If you can't do anything because the partitions on the hard drive are
totally corrupt. Then A drive wiping utility can be handy. I've used
DBAN for this purpose. You need not let it complete, just 1 or 2
percent is good.

dban.sourceforge.net

Then reinstall the os.