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problems reinstalling windows on new hard drive
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Posted May 9, 2011 at 8:03AM
Hi
My friend has been given an old sony vaio laptop by his neighbour, who has removed and destroyed the old hard drive.
He does not have any cd's or anything else but the windows sticker and serial number are still intact and readable.
I have managed to obtain another hard drive for him but have had no luck reinstalling windows xp from my original cd.
The laptop starts the post and I can get into the bios but there is an error message which says that "error loading operating system", which I expected as the drive was formatted previously.
I have downloaded and tried to run the ultimate boot cd which I downloaded but this does not run and I get the above error message even though it is set to boot from the cd first.
Your advice would be most appreciated.
Thank you
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Posted May 9, 2011 at 8:16AM
It could be that the Drives are SATA, Check BIOS to see what it says about the drives you may need to load drivers for the Hard Drive
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Posted May 9, 2011 at 9:33AM
Thank you for your prompt replies.
I'm not sure how to update the bios with the new hard drive drivers, although I have downloaded the drivers and utilities from the Sony website.
The bios didn't have any option to change the hard drive settings and just listed it as 60Gb, and had no option to change any of the settings.
Your further suggestions would be most appreciated.
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Posted May 9, 2011 at 9:45AM
error message which says that "error loading operating system", which I expected as the drive was formatted previously
This shows that it is not booting from the CD
above error message even though it is set to boot from the cd first
Even though you have set BIOS boot order to boot from the CD first, you still have to 'press any key to boot from CD' when the message flashes up.
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Posted May 9, 2011 at 10:04AM
.... but I dont get a message flashing up though, so I suppose that i should press any key anyway?
I hear the cd drive whirring, and then the error message comes up.
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Posted May 9, 2011 at 10:14AM
Try tapping F8 as you start the pc, sometimes the CD boot is in the list to choose from. Did you save the BIOS changes after you made them
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Posted May 9, 2011 at 10:38AM
I definately saved the bios changes. f10 and then yes.
I'll tap a few keys again when I get home tonight.
Thanks for your help everyone.
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Posted May 9, 2011 at 10:54AM
According to ehow.com ClickHere you have to Hit "F11" while your computer is booting up. Keep hitting the key until you see a boot order prompt If F8 or F11 doesn't work, try F10 or F12 as models vary, sometimes it is the Del key usually it's the 'press any key' or there is some sort of message to tell you which key to press.
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Posted May 10, 2011 at 8:30AM
Update..
F11 allowed it to to boot from cd, where I was able to run a drive diagnostic from my ultimate boot cd called drive fitness test.
Unfortunately, this came back with an failure code 0x73 defective device. excessive shock. Even after formatting and running again I got a failure code of 0x73 defective device. componenet failure.
So I guess that the "new" Hard drive is not going to work.
Thank you again for all of your assistance - If I manage to get another hard drive I'll repost if I need some advice.
Cheers
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