Vaio HDD Crash... XP bootable CD
Vaio HDD Crash... XP bootable CD
Right, minor faff/crisis
Sony Vaio SZ-1 latop, windows XP installed from new (about 2 1/2 yrs ago! I know I know...)
For those of you who are less familiar with Vaios, Sony staunchley refuse to provide backup DVD/CDs, but give you a nice backup partition on your HDD taking up 6gig of space. Being the good boy I am, backup discs duly made, but following several international moves, duly lost! Thoughtfully, I backed up the backup partition to my external HDD just in case of total FAFF! Then decided that I really needed the 6 gig of space on the lappie HD so wiped the backup from that and configured it as an extra partition.
Config of the HDD - 1 x 6gig backup partition, now in use as free space
1 x 35gig normal daily use partition (previously C
1 x 30gig partition full of entirely legal music (D
8mb of unusable space......
So, anyhow, turned the laptop on today & voila... "no operating system found". Dug out old and dusty Windows XP CD from a previous life. Appears to be non-bootable. So dug out bootable Win 98(!) CD which will boot to DOS (old skooool
just fine. Swopped out CDs and tried XP disc, "setup cannot run from MS-DOS" or words to that effect.
Win 98 won't install as it appears to be having mega issues with the different partitions! (recognises the 8meg unusable (under XP)as c: and will happily try and format it, but 8mb no use to man nor beast. It's then (I guess) recognising some or the rest of the HDD as D:, but can't cope with it as it's NTFS formatted. The DVD drive is recognised as E:, which is apparently causing problems as the setup doesnt appear to cope with the fact it's not running from D:.
So. anyhow, several possible solutions I can see!
1: Make recovery discs from the backup of the partition I have... any thoughts?
2: Make bootable XP CD/DVD... any thoughts?
3: install new clean hdd and try again with 98, then upgrade to XP after that using disc I already have.
Anyhow, suggestions on a postcard! Dont think the HDD in the laptop at the moment has had a major failure, just suspect minor faff, so reckon if I can get a modern-ish version of chkdsk or similar working on it, I'll be able to get an XP install disc to recognise it and install...
Sony Vaio SZ-1 latop, windows XP installed from new (about 2 1/2 yrs ago! I know I know...)
For those of you who are less familiar with Vaios, Sony staunchley refuse to provide backup DVD/CDs, but give you a nice backup partition on your HDD taking up 6gig of space. Being the good boy I am, backup discs duly made, but following several international moves, duly lost! Thoughtfully, I backed up the backup partition to my external HDD just in case of total FAFF! Then decided that I really needed the 6 gig of space on the lappie HD so wiped the backup from that and configured it as an extra partition.
Config of the HDD - 1 x 6gig backup partition, now in use as free space
1 x 35gig normal daily use partition (previously C
1 x 30gig partition full of entirely legal music (D
8mb of unusable space......
So, anyhow, turned the laptop on today & voila... "no operating system found". Dug out old and dusty Windows XP CD from a previous life. Appears to be non-bootable. So dug out bootable Win 98(!) CD which will boot to DOS (old skooool
just fine. Swopped out CDs and tried XP disc, "setup cannot run from MS-DOS" or words to that effect. Win 98 won't install as it appears to be having mega issues with the different partitions! (recognises the 8meg unusable (under XP)as c: and will happily try and format it, but 8mb no use to man nor beast. It's then (I guess) recognising some or the rest of the HDD as D:, but can't cope with it as it's NTFS formatted. The DVD drive is recognised as E:, which is apparently causing problems as the setup doesnt appear to cope with the fact it's not running from D:.
So. anyhow, several possible solutions I can see!
1: Make recovery discs from the backup of the partition I have... any thoughts?
2: Make bootable XP CD/DVD... any thoughts?
3: install new clean hdd and try again with 98, then upgrade to XP after that using disc I already have.
Anyhow, suggestions on a postcard! Dont think the HDD in the laptop at the moment has had a major failure, just suspect minor faff, so reckon if I can get a modern-ish version of chkdsk or similar working on it, I'll be able to get an XP install disc to recognise it and install...
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Sony staunchley refuse to provide backup DVD/CDs
I know someone who wiped their Sony with whilst messing around, and to cut a long story short, was unable to access the restore partition. CD was dispatched from Sony with only payment of shipping charges required.
Have you tried logging a support call ? I seem to recall being told normal routes were used, no special masonic handshakes were required .....
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Ah yes, I agree with you there.
CDs are cheap to buy, and cheap to duplicate, I fail to see why certain [cough.... Sony] manufacturers, fail to provide them in the box.
By the way, if you run into issues, I'll see if I can track down that person to see if they remember the process used....but I reckon you'll be ok.
CDs are cheap to buy, and cheap to duplicate, I fail to see why certain [cough.... Sony] manufacturers, fail to provide them in the box.
By the way, if you run into issues, I'll see if I can track down that person to see if they remember the process used....but I reckon you'll be ok.
Have been in touch with Sony and they want 35 quid for the privelege of having a copy of the system restore discs... Am tight fisted and definitely not paying that.
Have discovered a webpage that has a boot cd that uses your windows XP cd to create a bootable installation disc. Will be trying that on return from work...
UBCD for Windows is the site
Have discovered a webpage that has a boot cd that uses your windows XP cd to create a bootable installation disc. Will be trying that on return from work...
UBCD for Windows is the site
