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Operating system not found "vaio laptop"


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#1
kiladubz

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hello, im new to the forum, so if i didnt post this in the correct forum i apologize...
I have a problem thats been driving me ape for the last 2 weeks, here it goes,
I'm in possesion of an older sony vaio pcg-vx89 laptop, and im getting the dreaded "operating system not found" message.
I have already changed out the hard drive as the other one sounded like metal caught in a lawnmower, the problem started with the old hd and i figured i could just change it and reformat.....onto problem #2, this laptop is soo old that it doesn't have a built in dvdrom drive instead it is connected via what appears to be usb. when i pop in the recovery cd's it does NOTHING just stays there with "Operating system not found". the comp does not have a floppy drive either, i tried using a flash drive but to no avail. I am at my wits end here i dont care about what was on the old hd, i just want this to run. Please Help!!!!
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#2
dsenette

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boot into the bios and see if you can find any reference to that external drive....if the machine is TOO old...i'm gonna doubt that you'll find any reference to it at all....computers have just recently (within the last 3 years....really 1.5 years for it to become mainstream) come with the ability to boot to usb devices...i'd suspect that this is what's going on here....the machine isn't able to boot from a usb drive..and therefore cannot boot to the windows disk in the external drive
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#3
kiladubz

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there is a reference in the bios to cdrom drive and removable devices (even has network boot option, whatever that is), however ive tried changing the boot order multiple times, with different configurations, i.e. cd, hd, removable, network, removable,cd, hd, network, with no success. i have alot of experience when it comes to desktops, but not so much with laptops, any ideas at this point would be welcome (even involving a hammer, j\k ehhh.....). Is there any other way to get this freggin cd to read?

PS, upon further investigation the drive is connected to the laptop by means of ilink or firewire.

Edited by kiladubz, 05 September 2007 - 12:12 AM.

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#4
dsenette

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hmm...i wonder if it's just not able to boot to firewire? if it has "removable" as an option one would expect that to be USB boot...
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#5
kiladubz

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i would expect it too, but after numerous tries, its just not booting, im wondering if its the ext drive, or the firewire cable itself?
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#6
The Skeptic

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My opinion is that there is nothing that can be done unless you have a working cd drive. The only three things that I could suggest:

1: Is the drive spinning? If not, and if you are handy, you can try to open the drive and replace the rubber belt if it's torn. Belts like these can be found at electronic general repair shop who reapir home dvds and disk players.

2: If the drive is spinning try to clean the laser readers. Use special cleaning disk for this purpose.

3: Look for a new or used drive in e-bay or some other place.
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#7
kiladubz

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the drive is indeed spinning, apparently its just not reading, i will try the lens cleaner and update.
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#8
kiladubz

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tried the lens cleaner, the drive spins, for some reason the computer isnt even bothering to recognize the fact that it should boot off the cd. its very irritating. is the any way i can use the network boot feature to my advantage? i even disable the hard drive altogether in the bios and it still tell me OS not found, NO $$##!!!!! how can it say that if ive disabled the hard drive?!?!?!?!

Edited by kiladubz, 05 September 2007 - 03:30 PM.

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#9
kiladubz

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an idea just struck me, but i need help on the follow-thru, i figured i can simply connect the hd to my pc and run setup that way, my problem is... what do i need, i read in another forum that i would need a "laptop hd enclosure" what is the official name for this device? im putting all my eggs in one basket, if this doesn't work, nothing will.

Edited by kiladubz, 05 September 2007 - 07:26 PM.

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#10
The Skeptic

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That will not work. Upon installation windows registers componennts and install drivers and files. When you move the hard disk back to your computer it will not run at all or will run with lots of problems. To correct this you need to perform xp repair installation for which you need the cd drive etc etc etc. That takes you to square one.
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#11
kiladubz

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yknow, at this point its my only option, im just hoping it will install the files to read the firewire drive, if it doesnt, oh well $7 down the drain.....
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#12
peter99

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How to install XP from a command prompt

Install hard drive in a enclosure or a laptop with a working CDR/DVDrom drive

Make two partitions on the drive using FAT32 make the first partition active and bootable so you will have a command prompt when you install it back in the laptop.
If using Format command use the s switch ie format? /s

Copy the i386 folder from the XP cd to the second partition

Install drive back into the laptop

Startup the laptop then at the command prompt change to the second partition

Should be D

Change to the i386 folder type winnt to start installing XP

D:\i386\winnt

Once XP is on then you can change the partitions to NTFS if you like

i would leave the i386 folder on the drive incase you need to reinstall xp again

you can get bootdisks from here a win98se or me bootdisk will be ok

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Edited by peter99, 07 September 2007 - 03:47 AM.

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#13
kiladubz

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thanks man i really appreciate it, i will try and update once its done (should be next tues) also i think the OS for this comp will be Win ME or 98SE, as it looks like a crawler with XP....
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#14
peter99

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You can do the same with 98 Copy the folder called CABS to the hard drive and type setup
To start the install

When you install ME it automatically puts the cab files in a folder options\cabs if I remember.

I used to do it that way all the time for 98, installs a bit quicker.

you will need to update internet explorer to get windows updates


UNOFFICIAL Windows98 Second Edition Service Pack 2.1a (Freeware)

http://www.softpedia...nload-9065.html

TIP for win98

USE WINME DEFRAG + SCANDSKW WITH WIN95/98

http://www.mdgx.com/

download files from here if you haven’t got ME disk

http://www.mdgx.com/files/SCANFRAG.EXE

Edited by peter99, 08 September 2007 - 05:06 AM.

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#15
The Skeptic

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Hi peter99.

As I am here to learn as much as to help, and as the following post is directly related to this topic , found much interest in the method you proposed to install XP. I tried it and performed all the steps, using win98 emeregency boot floppy to create two partitions of fat 32 (through fdisk and format commands), each about 20 gigabyte, partition 1 active. I installed the newly formatted disk as a slave on a computer and copied i386 from xp installation disk into the second of the newly created disk. Then I disconnected the disk with the XP and jumpered the new disk as a master. The active partition was recognised as c:, the other one as d:.

I used the win98 rescue disk to boot to A: and at the command prompt typed the d:\i386\winnt, ignored the request for Star Smartdrive, as was the option, and the computer started copying files. At a cetain point it stopped showing the message "please wait while setup copies files to your hard disk". I tried this a number of times, always with the same result. Have I done anything wrong?

Thanks
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