sony vaio

Hi every time i switch my laptop on after the vaio logo the message 'operating system not found'comes on and thats it. please help......

That message usually indicates a problem with the hard disk. Either it is corrupt, some or all of the critical Windows files have been deleted, or the disk itself, or it's connection have failed.

If the machine is still under warranty, take it back to where you bought it. Be aware, you will probably lose any data that is on the disk. If you have critical data on there that you do not want to lose, you probably need to get a professional to look at it. Even then, the data may be irrecoverable. Do you have any backups?

yes i do have the recovery disks but dnt know if they will work????

If you have the Recovery Disks, they should work, but THEY WILL DELETE ALL OF YOUR DATA. Also, they may not solve the problem if the hard disk itself is failing. If you do not have any important data on there, you could give the Recovery Disks a go. When you boot from the Recovery Disk, after a couple of minutes, depending on how teh Recovery disks are created, you may get some options, including "Repair this Windows installation" Try that first, it is the least destructive.. If that fails, you may have to do a fresh install.

For some manufacturers, you do not get these options, all they supply is an image of the disk as it left the factory, in such a case, your only option is to run the image copy routine which will overwrite everything.

thank u very for that. I'll try the disks as i dnt have any important data on their. thanx alot once again.

Just a word of warning, Majid. It is quite likely that you got the error message because your hard drive has failed or is failing. If it has failed then running the recovery procedure will not work. If it is failing then you may get the computer running again for a short while but it won't be very long before it goes wrong again. In either case you would need to replace the hard drive.

Get a decent boot cd (free online) and boot from that. There should be tools on there that will allow you to reallign your hard drive to boot ok.

You DO NOT need to loose any data OR format / reinstall in this situation

Regards

Sttart
thats a very slim chance of working

Realign a hard drive????

Hi There

sorry i didnt expalin that too well. his system cannot see the OS on the HDD. A boot disk will allow the fixing of the mbr / boot records allowing the system to boot.

regards

Hi John Stag

Why does that have a slim chance of working? even a boot with an xp cd into the recovery console will fix this. or the vista start up disk.

Regards

What I see from the symptoms is a dead or dying hard drive, in which case no amount of MBR repairing is going to work. I think that is also where Jon is coming from.

precisely
rarely is this a software fault
even if the drive was repairable I would take it as a sign of imminent failure and advise a replacement
besides which before trying any repair I would want to attempt to access the drive and see if there was any recoverable data. If chkdsk goes wrong it can trash whatever is left. Also I prefer to try the drive manfufacturers diagnostic/repair tools BEFORE using chkdsk

hi there

the original poster error message was "No operating system found"

this DOES NOT point to a hdd failure

regards

Or a software failure

the error message tells you exactly whats wrong

the bios cannot see the system / boot partition

correct this and it will boot

regards

but what caused the partition to be lost?
possibly a virus, but in reality its almost certainly due to a failing drive. You may be able to recover the drive back to working status for a short while, but it will fail again soon.
Drives don't lose partitions without some underlying cause or mechanical defect. Every one I've ever repaired has failed again within a few months. In a case like this my view is that the priorities are to
1) recover data from the drive
2) fit a replacement drive
Its important to note here that sometimes these faults can be apparently be cleared and repaired by using the disk manufacturers diagnostic tools, but my experience is that the errors always return. It would seem from comments in earlier threads that other members of PCIQ have also come to the same conclusion

hi there:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321626

relacing the HDD is the LAST option

so don't always assume a hardware failure

regards

might be better to verify the other options first which was what i said originally, might the customer too

regards

Stuart, with respect, the error message "operating system cannot be found" IS indicative of a failed hard drive. It it entirely possible for the BIOS to see and recognise a hard drive during boot up, but if the drive ain't spinning then then no OS can be found can it? I have witnessed this very scenario myself many more times than a corrupted boot sector. The only sensible recourse is to save any customers data possible (if the drive will spin up and allow it) and then run some diagnostics. I still maintain that drive failure is to be strongly suspected and therefore appropriate measures should be taken before subjecting the drive to further stresses.

hi there

YES it can mean a HDD is on the road out but not always.

I would test the drive to confirm. No point in replacing a part that is perfectly ok.

regards

"I would test the drive to confirm"
thats the whole point (as related is past threads)
Many (most?) drives in this situation will pass the tests -only to fail later. If a drive throws this error you have to regard it as suspect and unreliable.
I'll repeat my earlier question: if the drive is not failing, what do you think caused the drive corruption which caused the error?

hi there

it could have been:

a virus
a failing / faulty cmos battery
mbr / boot or system partition changes
boot.ini changes

i mean what is the point in changing a drive because of a typo in a boot.ini file

only once i had satisfied these things among others would i change the drive.

maybe you work differently

so just what do you propose the original poster does to fix this? I don't see that "Get a decent boot cd (free online) and boot from that" helps many of these options
Also note that its a week since the original posting so I's sure there is little ongoing interest. We'd have heard if there was

hi there

a boot cd would:

remove any viruses affecting system boot
fix any mbr corruptions / errors
diagnose / identify hdd errors
fix or edit the boot.ini

and so on

but as its an old post i'd can it

hi! i cannot start my sony vaio. no installation programs or watsoever.. my recovery disc is corrupted. all programs, i mean EVERYTHING is gone. No start up disc and nothing. help pls..
when i start it- "OPERATING SYSTEM NOT FOUND"

1) In future please start a new enquiry in a new thread. Simply adding to an old one like this runs the risk of being ignored, especially when your question was answered earlier in the thread
2) either the software on your machine has been corrupted or - more likely- your hard drive is dead or dying. As you've no recovery disk or windows cd we cannot fix it through the forum. You need to call in support to get a PCIQ member to either fix the software or replace the drive

Why does everything usually turn into an argument because someone has a differnet "POV" of how to fix something or even just offer a suggestion?

Jon yes this might be a HDD fault but what stuart has said is correct, although he did not really explain it in detail with his first post. Maybe some of you need to take time out and chill before getting all worked up over someone elses post.

In many cases I have had Operating System Not Found on my own machine and it was just because of dust, Simply removing the HDD and giving it wipe fixed it. Many of the same errors can have multipul unique fixes, so instead of trying to point out others mistakes lets just give the customer your own solution, it is then up to the customer to try them out.

stuart i totally agree with you! i usually fix this error with a bart pe bootdisk there are several tools included that resolve this error. this can most definatly also be done with a recovery console with a windows xp disk
and if i think for one second there is a fault with the hard disk ill then run a level 5 scan with spinwrite that fix's most issues with hard disks, and in this case it is rarely the hard disk. there are lots of people out there who will potentially sell a customer a hard disk because they haven't got the knowledge to resolve a simple issue like this! formatting is simply the easy and lazy way out when id personally rather fix the issue at hand within minutes with no data loss!

David/Darren
check the dates of this thread - May/June
no point raking over old news now

Hi, I have seem to have lost the Vaio gate drop down menu at top of screen, what do I do to get this back up?

Sharon, this is such an old thread that it's not likely to be seen by many people. Please post a new thread, possibly titled "Lost Vaio gate drop down menu" and someone may respond :-)