Sony Vaio Laptop Problem - Operating System Not Found

debitcardmayhem

robmar0se wrote: »

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.
Snipped

As a rule most folks don't have a caddy, nor copies of disks not even the ones that might or might not come with the original pc. However if the OP has access to another PC and either a USB stick, or a CD/DVD writer on said pc then the quickest way is to download systemrescuecd/usbcd/hirens and then see if one of these can 1) read the disk or 2) not read the disk ...if 1) we have a chance if 2) we still have other options , but only given a following wind.

This site does not come with guarantees just suggestions, and the first premise it is going to save money, i.e. don't suggest buying a caddy, lets do a free download and then let's see what happens from there. Then if OP is not confident to use the instructions given then ok get a caddy , take out the disk and then copy it elsewhere.
Edited: sorry but does the OP know the difference between PATA/SATA , at the end of the day it may even be a raid array , or even a native scsi disk

TakeThis

GingerWarrior wrote: »

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.

Cheers

Full model number?

robmar0se

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

As a rule most folks don't have a caddy, nor copies of disks not even the ones that might or might not come with the original pc. However if the OP has access to another PC and either a USB stick, or a CD/DVD writer on said pc then the quickest way is to download systemrescuecd/usbcd/hirens and then see if one of these can 1) read the disk or 2) not read the disk ...if 1) we have a chance if 2) we still have other options , but only given a following wind.

This site does not come with guarantees just suggestions, and the first premise it is going to save money, i.e. don't suggest buying a caddy, lets do a free download and then let's see what happens from there. Then if OP is not confident to use the instructions given then ok get a caddy , take out the disk and then copy it elsewhere.
Edited: sorry but does the OP know the difference between PATA/SATA , at the end of the day it may even be a raid array , or even a native scsi disk

DCM - I don't disagree with you - there are different ways to approach this issue, its upto the OP to do whatever he feels most comfortable with (depends on whether a novice or has some experience of these things) - its good to have the alternatives!

Its all about possibilities /probabilities - folks loose disks, most in our experience don't make the recovery disks, improbable that OPs will have scsi/raid on a lappie, but not impossible.

Caddies can be acquired for as little as a £5, and are useful with the appropriate hdd for backing things up, something the majority of folks don't do and we should encourage them to do, eg as in this case the OP is at greater risk of loosing stuff.

Whichever route the OP wishes to take, they should backup anything thats important to them asap.

GunJack

DCM and rob - Guys, you both make valid points. The morals of this and (let's face it, more times than we care to count) the many other similar threads on here are:-

1. new machine - CREATE THE RECOVERY DISKS !!

2. Back up all your data on a regular basis, both in "normal" format and by full disk images.

These two simple steps would instantly stop all the panic of sudden hdd failure (of whatever kind), and the likes of us have been endorsing on this (and other) forums for several years.

It's about time people woke up to the digital era and realised that the value is in that personal data, and not necessarily in the hardware they're stored on.......