Need help with missing Operating System

[FranticMe]

I have been using my work allocated HP Elite for personal record-keeping. Yesterday, when I fired it up, the laptop said there was no operating system installed. I also noticed a faint "beeping" coming from behind an illuminated Caps Lock key. I have no

 other device to use to troubleshoot with HP (which is why I amwriting this from local library computer)

My primary, panic-fuelled question to this community of knowlegeable users is the following: Does this mean that all of my work related, and personal record keeping documents on this laptop, photos, etc. are gone? regardless of whether ot not the missing Operating system can be "fixed" or "found"?

[WAWood]

@FranticMe

The presence of beeping, together with a blinking CapsLock key indicates a major hardware fault.

You failed to mention your model number, so my advice below PRESUMES your model laptop has a removable hard drive ...

Your best bet for recovering data now is to do the following:
1) Remove the hard drive from the old PC
2) Purchase a USB-to-Hard Driver adapter kit (like the one illustrated below)

 

3) Connect the old drive to a working PC using that adapter
4) Try to retrieve the files and folders you want to save from the old drive and copy them to the new PC.

If this does not work, then you need to do the following:
1) Download and install this utility on a working PC http://www.majorgeeks.com/news/story/recover_data_in_3_steps_with_minitool_power_data_recovery_free_...
2) Run the data recovery utility to see what can be retrieved from the old drive.

If that tool does not find what you need, an alternative is Recuva http://www.piriform.com/recuva

And, if that does not work well, the best tool out there is this one, but only the trial version is free http://www.file-recovery.com/

[ieee488]

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@FranticMe wrote:

I have been using my work allocated HP Elite for personal record-keeping. Yesterday, when I fired it up, the laptop said there was no operating system installed. I also noticed a faint "beeping" coming from behind an illuminated Caps Lock key. I have no

 other device to use to troubleshoot with HP (which is why I amwriting this from local library computer)

My primary, panic-fuelled question to this community of knowlegeable users is the following: Does this mean that all of my work related, and personal record keeping documents on this laptop, photos, etc. are gone? regardless of whether ot not the missing Operating system can be "fixed" or "found"?

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Take your work allocated HP Elitebook back to your company's IT department and let them fix it.

That is their job!

It is never a good idea to keep personal information on a laptop provided by your employer!

.