Laptop Recovery discs

[Spartan73]

Hi Guys - I have another one for you. THis time - Im helping a friend, being the ever helpful guy i am ( even when i dont know what Im doing ).

 

Sony Laptop - VGN FS315Z

HDD died ( after various testing this was concluded )

so we bought a new one - installed it, and using the recovery discs are trying to reinstall the OS ( XP )

 

Thing is, its not recognising the disc - or booting from it. I keep getting the same error ( OS not found ). Went into the bios, and made sure boot sequence was OK, and still not able to install.

 

Any advice please people?

 

Thanks muchly, as always,

 

Spart

[Seth]

Does the bios recognize the optical drive? Check that and double check the boot sequence. Also make sure you're using the correct first bootable cd and that it's clean.

 

If all that fails to resolve the issue, then see if the laptop will boot from any other bootable cd such as a regular xp cd.

[Dalo Harkin]

The fact that it is saying OS not found says that it is searching for the HDD still -

Make sure that the CDROM is the FIRST boot device and disable 2,3, etc.

[Spartan73]

Hi Guys

 

thanks for your replies.

 

Im pretty sure the Bios is finding the HDD - it is listed ( with a serial number ) in the boot menu.

 

Boot Menu is

 

Optical Drive

Floppy ( non existant )

HDD

Network

 

I moved the HDD to the bottom of the pile and still, same error. Been reading around ( hopefully got no textually transmitted diseases ) and found out that you can press F10 on the start up screen to begin recovery from preloaded partitions - even tried that, hoping it will look for the missing software from the disc - but no joy.

 

The recovery discs DO have the OS on them dont they? First time these discs have been used, and they are mint, so scratches are not the prob.

 

I only have a Vista Disc at home, I will try thta in the drive later - just to see if it boots of course!

 

Thanks guys

[Dalo Harkin]

Hi Guys

 

thanks for your replies.

 

Im pretty sure the Bios is finding the HDD - it is listed ( with a serial number ) in the boot menu.

 

Change Boot Menu to

 

Optical Drive

Disable

Disable

 

I moved the HDD to the bottom of the pile and still, same error. Been reading around ( hopefully got no textually transmitted diseases ) and found out that you can press F10 on the start up screen to begin recovery from preloaded partitions - even tried that, hoping it will look for the missing software from the disc - but no joy.

 

The recovery discs DO have the OS on them dont they? First time these discs have been used, and they are mint, so scratches are not the prob.

 

I only have a Vista Disc at home, I will try thta in the drive later - just to see if it boots of course!

 

Thanks guys

 

do as highlighted

[Spartan73]

Ok buddy will do -

 

let you know how i get on - asap

 

Thanks again,

:D

[Seth]

The boot order can be generic, so you have to check that the optical drive is being detected by the bios. It should say so under the first or second bios heading which will show the detected drives.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Let me get this right Spartan

 

Are you trying to boot and install from a Recovery disk?

 

A recovery disk is just what it says and not a full operating system install disk mate.

 

It will reinstall/repair operating system files that are already there but not when using a brand new hard drive.

[Seth]

Wolfey,

 

The Recovery disks are an image of the original operating system and software. The same image that would be on the recovery partition.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I'm not convinced Seth.

[Seth]

Well that's fine, but either way, the cd should boot.

[Spartan73]

Hi Guys thanks for your replies

 

I had a dreadful feeling that what Wolfey suggested MAY be the case, but my friend says he heard someone say the same as Seth, that you should be able to use a new HDD....and I agreed :confused:

 

( also they are 2 DVDs - what else could possibly be on there? )

 

Ok - in the Bios I can see the optical drive and new hdd. But when I go into the boot sequence menu, there are no options ( that I can see ) to disable the the other drives.... I can only move them up and down in the list.. Am I missing something?

 

We really apreciate the help guys and girls.

 

;)

[Spartan73]

 

Am I missing something?

 

 

;)

 

other than the obvious vital brain cells required to carry out this procedure of course ! :p

[Seth]

No, you won't be able to disable them. Though it doesn't matter.

 

Have you tried that Vista DVD? Or, try seeing if the recovery dvd's will boot in another computer.

 

When the lappy starts, do you hear the dvd spin and see the drive light flashing?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

2 DVD's?

 

That's very strange as I have never seen XP on a DVD at all, it will fit easily on to a 700MB CD.

 

The only other cd that one might possibly have is a driver disk.

 

This is of course in a normal scenario.

 

When I made some back up recovery disks for my Vista system I had to use DVD's, 3 of in fact.

 

I will still dispute the fact that you can reinstall the operating system via those Recovery disks Spartan.

 

I'll ask this question that should it be possible to reinstall via that method what is the point in a recovery partition?

[Seth]

I'll ask this question that should it be possible to reinstall via that method what is the point in a recovery partition?

 

The point of the recovery partition is for when the software is knackered. When the drive is knackered, that's when you use the recovery disks for the new drive.

 

What do these DVD's say?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I maintain that it's when the file system is knackered Seth.

[Spartan73]

No, you won't be able to disable them. Though it doesn't matter.

 

Have you tried that Vista DVD? Or, try seeing if the recovery dvd's will boot in another computer.

 

When the lappy starts, do you hear the dvd spin and see the drive light flashing?

 

 

Hi Seth

 

Yes the drive light illuminates and I hear it spinning.

 

The Vista DVD boots as happy as Larry.

 

Hmmmm

 

Thank you

 

:)

[Seth]

Ok good. Please post exactly what the DVD's say on the label.

[Spartan73]

The point of the recovery partition is for when the software is knackered. When the drive is knackered, that's when you use the recovery disks for the new drive.

 

What do these DVD's say?

 

Actually looking at them now, they dont say DVD as such on the disc, but on the CD CASE it says RDVD EN under a " Des: " Tab

 

The discs are labelled Vaio Recovery Discs For Sony Sony VGN-FS3 Series EN

( 2 discs 1/2 and 2/2 )

 

:rolleyes:

[Guest Wolfeymole]

From what I have just researched it seems I was mistaken Seth, you have my apologies mate.

[Seth]

No worries Wolfey.

 

Well those disks should boot. Can you try the first disk in another computer?

 

Another option is this:

 

Put the old hard drive in and if the system boots, create new recovery disks.

If it doesn't boot, we might be able to repair the drive enough so it can.

[Spartan73]

Also they say only to be used with Sony Personal Computers and will not function on any other computer.

 

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that it is possible to change the hard drive, and these discs do have verify 4 things, heres the quote

 

The recovery process is locked to the specific model machine. This was done deliberately by Sony in order to keep the powers that be happy, and to also make it harder to use the disks on other machines. Now when you start the recovery process there are 4 pieces of information that the software looks for in the machines BIOS. There is the Model Name, the 8 digit model code, the 7 digit serial number and a country specific code. If any of these pieces of information are not within the necessary range then the recovery software will not work.

In Europe the machines are divided into country regions. The UK is designated by GB, Germany is DE and so on. Each model has a specific 8 digit model code. This is not to be confused with the 7 digit chassis code on the machines. For example the VGN FS215Z(UK) model has a model code of 28198260 and a chassis number of PCG 7A1M. Notice that I put the (UK) after the model name, this is because the model code changes with the country code. The FS215Z (ES) has a model code of 28198266 but it shares the same chassis code of PCG 7A1M

The machines have a specific serial number range. The FS215Z(UK) serial range is 5200001 to 5229999. The FS215Z(ES) serial range is 5260001 to 5269999.

If these 4 bits of information are within range then the recovery software will run. If not then you get the good old Please check your model error message

 

DOes this help?

 

The discs are deffinately for the correct machine!

 

;)

[Spartan73]

No worries Wolfey.

 

Well those disks should boot. Can you try the first disk in another computer?

 

Another option is this:

 

Put the old hard drive in and if the system boots, create new recovery disks.

If it doesn't boot, we might be able to repair the drive enough so it can.

 

 

Seth Yes I can Buddy as soon as i get back, have to pop out for an hour or 2, but I will get the boot disks upstairs to my desktop and try them there.

 

I will also put the old HDD in and see what happens try to boot with the CDs ( I think my friend tried that ) - Let you know.

 

Thanks LOADS!

 

;)

[Seth]

Any recovery set will boot in any computer. However, if the set is used on a different computer, the disk will boot then say something similar to "This computer is not compatible with the Sony recovery disks". So, the process won't proceed, but at least you'll know the disk is bootable.