Sony Vaio Laptop Problem - Operating System Not Found

GingerWarrior

My dad's just given me his laptop which has decided to say "Operating System Not Found" just after the Sony Vaio logo comes up.

I've tried removing and putting back in the harddrive but that wasn't the problem.

I then Googled to find out how to access the BIOS, and despite doing that and making sure the laptop looks for the harddrive first - I am still getting the same error.

Any other thoughts/ideas as to how to get the laptop to boot up?

Cheers

withabix

Sounds like the hard drive has failed.

Does it spin up and keep going, or do you get clicking sounds? (or nothing at all)

gandalf1

hi try tapping f8 key when booting up and on opening screen open up restore centre and restore to previous date when computer did work carry on from there and uninstall the prog that giving problems hope this helps

GingerWarrior

withabix wrote: »

Sounds like the hard drive has failed.

Does it spin up and keep going, or do you get clicking sounds? (or nothing at all)

Couple of small clicks, then just winds down and silence

GingerWarrior

gandalf1 wrote: »

hi try tapping f8 key when booting up and on opening screen open up restore centre and restore to previous date when computer did work carry on from there and uninstall the prog that giving problems hope this helps

Tried that and only key that works is F2 to get into BIOS

Figment

How old is the laptop and which version of Windows is/was installed?

Anything unusual happened to the laptop recently (e.g. dropped/knocked/shaken, BSOD (Blue Screen error), switched off without shutting down or anything similar)

Do you have any disks that were supplied with it (or created soon after purchase)

robmar0se

Its not unusual for HDD's to fail, after all the manufacturer does disclose the "mean time to failure".

Can you take the hdd out, put in a caddy and see if another machine can read anything on it?

If it can't be read, then I'm afraid it means a new HDD, hopefully you have the Windows OS disks, and the license code for a re-install?

If you can read it on another system, there is a chance that the MBR and/or boot sector are damaged. But again you would need the Windows OS to attempt a repair.

sonstream

I had a similar problem with a sony vaio I had when it cant remember how but I managed managed to get it to boot into a diagnostic program (sony one) and it started to test the hard drive and the estimated time of compleation was days indicating a dead hard drive try googling how to get into that diagnostic mode will help you! ps sony have excellent customer service mine was picked up from my house via a courier shipped to france and fixed and back to my door within a week. hth

wookie66

What model is it

In order to access the BIOS i believe you have to keep tapping the F8 key whilst the system is booting up

Alternatively try tapping the F10 key which may boot up the Sony
Recovery program assuming the recovery partition is still intact, although by sounds of it, it isnt given you get the message No Operating System Found

To check its a hard drive fault best to remove hard drive (fairly easy job depending on your model) and test it using a hard drive caddy

However if you post your model number may be better able to assist

Also try http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/hub/VAIO for support info for your model

Hope this helps

GunJack

get hold of hiren's bootdisk, boot from the cd, and try NTLDR fix, or miniXP mode to see if you can access the data on the hdd. Much quicker than removing the hdd and putting it in a caddy Alternatively, boot from a linux cd (like puppy linux) as often a linux distro will read a failing hdd better than a windows-based system....

robmar0se

Just a word of explanation here...

As a small firm we have all the windows disks and for us the simplest approach is to remove the hdd into either a sata or pata caddy (or equivalent), to test it on another system - we would usually do a "chkdsk c:/r" to find out of the hdd has bad sectors - if so we would recommend replacing it.

Caddies are generally useful for this and recovering stuff from damaged hdds!!. an exanple of a sata type is here - not a recommendation, just an illustration - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-SATA-USB-HARD-DRIVE-CADDY-HDD-CASE-ENCLOSURE-/130629097442?pt=UK_Collectables_HardDriveEnclosures_RL&hash=item1e6a19d7e2

Sometimes just doing this will repair the disk (thats what the "/r" attempts to do).

However if it still doesn't boot, then we would attempt to do a FIXMBR and/or FIXBOOT - a good website for the non-rechnical : http://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/fix-mbr-xp-vista/

These recommendations are not necessarily the only way to address these problems, it depends on how technically comfortable you are with usings tools such as Hirens. Folks have different ways to resolve issues.