Sony Vaio, Operatiny System Not Found, not the usual though

[JMStitch]

I have read all the forums I can on this subject and have a few ideas to try when I'm home later, but I still wanted to put something up myself as my problem is a little unique.
I bought my Vaio (SVE range) a couple of years ago. Within a few months it developed this problem. I checked places, bought the recovery discs and restored it to a factory default. Since then the laptop had the same problem 3 times, however with the first two I walked away from the laptop, came back the next day and it worked fine like nothing had happened. On this 3rd occaision I have had no such luck and I have lost the recovery discs when moving house. I was wandering if anyone had any thoughts on this. Would anyone be able to shed any light on why this would happen? Perhanps because of this someone know if it deffinately is or isn't an HDD failure?

Update 1: I have been home (I'm using my work PC at the moment) and checked, my HDD is fully visible in the BIOS menu's. I have removed the HDD and re-inserted it several times to no avail so I firmly believe there is no problem with the connection there. At this point I'm assuming I'll need to re-install windows or something to the equivelant, but im not wanting to buy repair tools until I know its the right repair so any advice will be greatly welcome.

 

[cdrkf]

I have read all the forums I can on this subject and have a few ideas to try when I'm home later, but I still wanted to put something up myself as my problem is a little unique.
I bought my Vaoi (SVE range) a couple of years ago. Within a few months it developed this problem. I checked places, bought the recovery discs and restored it to a factory default. Since then the laptop had the same problem 3 times, however with the first two I walked away from the laptop, came back the next day and it worked fine like nothing had happened. On this 3rd occaision I have had no such luck and I have lost the recovery discs when moving house. I was wandering if anyone had any thoughts on this. Would anyone be able to shed any light on why this would happen? Perhanps because of this someone know if it deffinately is or isn't an HDD failure?

It could be a bad connection on the sata port between the HDD and the motherboard socket. I had a laptop that wouldn't boot up like this- opened it up, pushed the HDD against the port a bit and it cured it. Worth a try

If not then the HDD may well have died, in which case if the rest of the laptop is ok maybe get yourself a cheap SSD to go in it. Will make it feel like a new machine

 

[JMStitch]

It could be a bad connection on the sata port between the HDD and the motherboard socket. I had a laptop that wouldn't boot up like this- opened it up, pushed the HDD against the port a bit and it cured it. Worth a try

If not then the HDD may well have died, in which case if the rest of the laptop is ok maybe get yourself a cheap SSD to go in it. Will make it feel like a new machine

Firstly, thankyou for taking the time to help
I have many times in the past removed the HDD and Re-inserted it to see it was a dodgy connection, unfortunately im not that lucky.
Last night I checked and the HDD is completely visible in the BIOS setup, so that narrows things down a bit....hopefully lol

 

[cdrkf]

It could be a bad connection on the sata port between the HDD and the motherboard socket. I had a laptop that wouldn't boot up like this- opened it up, pushed the HDD against the port a bit and it cured it. Worth a try

If not then the HDD may well have died, in which case if the rest of the laptop is ok maybe get yourself a cheap SSD to go in it. Will make it feel like a new machine

Firstly, thankyou for taking the time to help
I have many times in the past removed the HDD and Re-inserted it to see it was a dodgy connection, unfortunately im not that lucky.
Last night I checked and the HDD is completely visible in the BIOS setup, so that narrows things down a bit....hopefully lol

It sounds very much like a dead HDD. If you have access to a desktop machine, you should be able to plug it in using a spare Sata cable and see if it's accessible from there as a test. If not then the drive has probably died- not all that uncommon to be honest especially if it's a few years old.

 

[JMStitch]

It sounds very much like a dead HDD. If you have access to a desktop machine, you should be able to plug it in using a spare Sata cable and see if it's accessible from there as a test. If not then the drive has probably died- not all that uncommon to be honest especially if it's a few years old.

I don't have access to a desktop in that way unfortunately. I have had this problem before and solved it using the factory restore discs, and it worked fine after. Surely that wouldn't have happened if the HDD was on its way out?? and that was when the HDD was fairly new....
I was hoping to not have to send off to Sony for more discs, Im in the UK so it cost me a fortune and I'd rather find some less drastic solution. Perhaps Windows repair discs.

 

[cdrkf]

It sounds very much like a dead HDD. If you have access to a desktop machine, you should be able to plug it in using a spare Sata cable and see if it's accessible from there as a test. If not then the drive has probably died- not all that uncommon to be honest especially if it's a few years old.

I don't have access to a desktop in that way unfortunately. I have had this problem before and solved it using the factory restore discs, and it worked fine after. Surely that wouldn't have happened if the HDD was on its way out?? and that was when the HDD was fairly new....
I was hoping to not have to send off to Sony for more discs, Im in the UK so it cost me a fortune and I'd rather find some less drastic solution. Perhaps Windows repair discs.

Well you shouldn't need Sony specific disks, so long as you can get a disk with the correct version of windows on it (and assuming your laptop has the windows key listed on the sticker on the back) then you should be OK.

That said, you do need to ask yourself *why* it keeps winding up in this state? It *isn't* normal behaviour, I have a laptop that is in excess of 5 years old and I've never had to reinstall Windows on it. For this to occur it's either got to be a problem with the HDD, or with the motherboard. The only way to rule out HDD failure however is to test it in another machine. As you don't have access to one, perhaps you have a local computer repair shop that could look into this- at least this way they can tell you for definite what the cause of the problem is. A new HDD or SSD for your laptop won't cost much (you can buy laptop HDD for £50, an SSD would probably set you back £100 depending on size), however you'll definitely need to reinstall windows if that's the case.

If the motherboard is failing, well then it's time to get a new laptop as the cost of repairing it will likely outweigh the value of the machine (especially given you can get a new laptop for £200 these days if you shop around!).

 

[JMStitch]

It sounds very much like a dead HDD. If you have access to a desktop machine, you should be able to plug it in using a spare Sata cable and see if it's accessible from there as a test. If not then the drive has probably died- not all that uncommon to be honest especially if it's a few years old.

I don't have access to a desktop in that way unfortunately. I have had this problem before and solved it using the factory restore discs, and it worked fine after. Surely that wouldn't have happened if the HDD was on its way out?? and that was when the HDD was fairly new....
I was hoping to not have to send off to Sony for more discs, Im in the UK so it cost me a fortune and I'd rather find some less drastic solution. Perhaps Windows repair discs.

Well you shouldn't need Sony specific disks, so long as you can get a disk with the correct version of windows on it (and assuming your laptop has the windows key listed on the sticker on the back) then you should be OK.

That said, you do need to ask yourself *why* it keeps winding up in this state? It *isn't* normal behaviour, I have a laptop that is in excess of 5 years old and I've never had to reinstall Windows on it. For this to occur it's either got to be a problem with the HDD, or with the motherboard. The only way to rule out HDD failure however is to test it in another machine. As you don't have access to one, perhaps you have a local computer repair shop that could look into this- at least this way they can tell you for definite what the cause of the problem is. A new HDD or SSD for your laptop won't cost much (you can buy laptop HDD for £50, an SSD would probably set you back £100 depending on size), however you'll definitely need to reinstall windows if that's the case.

If the motherboard is failing, well then it's time to get a new laptop as the cost of repairing it will likely outweigh the value of the machine (especially given you can get a new laptop for £200 these days if you shop around!).

Thankyou I shall give this a try, Im going to test the HDD in another laptop a friend might let me use. Im assuming this is safe and that if my hard drive has issues it simply wont load or will load in their laptop. The main reason I cam to a forum is my confusion at the repeated problems. Id always assumed their was a fault that had nothing to do with the software but my town doesnt have many affordable pc technicians so I'd avoided going there unless completely neccesary, which it now might be! Thanks for your time.