What's going on here?

My computer, a Dell XPS 8700 was made in July, 2015. It came with Windows 10 home edition pre-installed. I never had much problem with it until the past few months when it has just shut itself down for no reason. Then when I restart it says "no operating system found". Both times it's done that I was able to fix it using DOS For Dummies and a lot of luck.What I'm trying to determine is whether there could be any connection between Win 10 and the way my computer has started acting. If it's just a hardware thing that's started failing, I'll replace it with a new computer. But if it's a Windows thing that won't solve the problem.The drive has been checked using check disk and no problems were found. The only reason I would even suspect the problem to be with Windows 10 is my experience with it since I first bought this computer. This has been the most unstable version of Windows I've used going back to Win 95. (Perhaps time has blurred memories of more hassels from back then.) I'd appreciate some advice from the experts about what's going on here. Thanks.

The "no operating system found" part does suggest a hardware issue, could be an imminent failure of the HDD/Hard Disk Drive or maybe the drive controller circuitry on the motherboard or perhaps a data cable or power cable to the drive.

While I'm having some troubles with another thing as of right now, yesterday I had the same issue. If you have a Windows installation media like a DVD or USB, use it to access the "Repair computer" options. Navigate through "Troubleshoot>Advanced options>Start-up Repair". It fixed this one problem for me and hope it does so for you. Good luck man!

Do any computers still come with a copy of the OS on separate media? My last computers didn't. But I made a repair DVD last April which did help restart the computer when I got a "drive set to read only" message recently. Twice, after fixing the start up issue, my external drives had their drive letters changed. That mainly just messes with shortcuts which no longer work. It also messes with my memory since I had learned what was on which drives, but that was no longer true.One bit of advice I'd offer is that if you have a complete power failure at your home unplug your system from the wall outlet until power has been restored. I have expensive surge protectors so I thought I was protected but when the power came back on I discovered that the contents of one drive had been scrambled. What the FAT pointed to was no longer reliable as to what the file actually was, plus a lot of the content was simply gone and recuva wasn't able to put humpty dumpty back together again.

larrydonline said:

Do any computers still come with a copy of the OS on separate media? My last computers didn't. But I made a repair DVD last April which did help restart the computer when I got a "drive set to read only" message recently. Twice, after fixing the start up issue, my external drives had their drive letters changed. That mainly just messes with shortcuts which no longer work. It also messes with my memory since I had learned what was on which drives, but that was no longer true.One bit of advice I'd offer is that if you have a complete power failure at your home unplug your system from the wall outlet until power has been restored. I have expensive surge protectors so I thought I was protected but when the power came back on I discovered that the contents of one drive had been scrambled. What the FAT pointed to was no longer reliable as to what the file actually was, plus a lot of the content was simply gone and recuva wasn't able to put humpty dumpty back together again.

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A couple of things, first is No, separate media for reinstall is no longer being provided but some OEMs include a program for making it.

Second, a surge protector doesn't protect from power failures, for that one needs a UPS/Uninterruptible Power Supply, also known as a Battery Backup.

I've seen where a power failure [of any type or duration] changed an External USB HDD from NTFS to RAW, difficult to deal with.