[Ericak]

Hi! I'm new here! I bought a sony laptop off ebay and I don't really know much at all about computers. When I turn it on it says operating system not found. I have 3 recovery disks but I'm so confused by what to choose with all the options, I don't know what drivers, etc. even are! If anyone could help me I would really appreciate it! Thanks in advance!

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Hello Ericak I am wizzy and welcome to Geeks To Go.

Hi! I'm new here! I bought a sony laptop off ebay and I don't really know much at all about computers. When I turn it on it says operating system not found. I have 3 recovery disks but I'm so confused by what to choose with all the options, I don't know what drivers, etc. even are! If anyone could help me I would really appreciate it! Thanks in advance!

I would like to ask a question before I continue with a fix for your problem. The recovery disks that you have did these come with the laptop or are they your own that you had with a previous computer? Could you also tell me what options you have available as this will help me alot more

The driver disks will come after the installtion and you would be better installing the newer ones from the manufacturers website as these will be newer and will have any bugs fixed.

If you could reply with the information I have requested I will be able to proceed

Regards

Edited by wizzy2k5, 03 December 2008 - 11:22 AM.

[wizzy2k5]

Hello Ericak I am wizzy and welcome to Geeks To Go.

Hi! I'm new here! I bought a sony laptop off ebay and I don't really know much at all about computers. When I turn it on it says operating system not found. I have 3 recovery disks but I'm so confused by what to choose with all the options, I don't know what drivers, etc. even are! If anyone could help me I would really appreciate it! Thanks in advance!

I would like to ask a question before I continue with a fix for your problem. The recovery disks that you have did these come with the laptop or are they your own that you had with a previous computer? Could you also tell me what options you have available as this will help me alot more

The driver disks will come after the installtion and you would be better installing the newer ones from the manufacturers website as these will be newer and will have any bugs fixed.

If you could reply with the information I have requested I will be able to proceed

Regards

Edited by wizzy2k5, 03 December 2008 - 11:22 AM.

[Ericak]

Hi! Thanks SO much for your help! There are 3 disks that the seller sent with the computer. I put the first disk in and turned it on and it says "select an operating system to repair and click next. If you do not see your operating system listed, click load drivers to load drivers for your hard disks." There is nothing in the box and my two options are load drivers or next.

[wizzy2k5]

Hello Ericak and thanks for that.

Normally when you see the error "operating system not found" means either the operating system has gone corrupt or theres not one installed. I assume that you cannot load drivers? Try and click the "load drivers" button and click next and tells me what happens. I am not familer with this operating system so I can only go on past experience.

If it can load the drivers it may proceed with either a repair or fresh install, if you cannot do this then it will need to be a fresh installation which means a disk i'm afraid. If you don't want to spend alot of money on this and are just using it for every day to day tasks such as internet and typing there is a solution. What you can do is download and burn a distrobution of linux (Suse and Fedora being my favourites) and install a version of that and that won't cost a penny

http://fedoraproject.org/

http://en.opensuse.org/Download

Regards

[Ericak]

I clicked load drivers and it says "insert the installation media for the device and click Ok to select the driver"

[wizzy2k5]

Hello Ericak

If its asking for installation media it needs a certain type of disk and I think it could be the main disk which you may not have. If you have a disk labeled drivers then load that in and see what happens. Try any disk that you have with you and see if it will accept them. If it does not accept any disks then you will need to buy a new copy of the software.

Regards

[gclipse02]

This will help... what are the labels on all three discs? This way we can tell exactly what you have and how to go about fixing it.

I'd check BIOS first, to see if there even IS a hard drive, considering where this computer was purchased. And if there is, the easiest attempt to fix that error would be FIXMBR, right?

Edited by gclipse02, 03 December 2008 - 01:47 PM.

[Ericak]

Thanks for your help. I don't have any other disks. In your opinion do you think it would be appropriate to contact the seller and ask for him to pay for Vista? Is that what I need to buy? This is a quote from the auction, "(Windows Vista Home premium OS/Drivers Recovery installed on hard drive).

Discs are included, just in case." I could pm you with a link to the auction if you wouldn't mind telling me if I have a right to ask for that to be paid for. I really, really appreciate your help!!

[Ericak]

This will help... what are the labels on all three discs? This way we can tell exactly what you have and how to go about fixing it.

Hi, The disks are labeled as "windows vista recovery media for windows vista products" and also labeled 1, 2, and 3.

[gclipse02]

The only time I've seen when the OS didn't recognize a hard disk on the computer was when there's a RAID setup with no driver loaded, or the hard drive wasn't working/connected properly. What brand/model is your computer?

Edited by gclipse02, 03 December 2008 - 01:54 PM.

[Ericak]

Its a Sony Vaio. Do you think I would be able to ask the seller to pay for this?

[gclipse02]

Its a Sony Vaio. Do you think I would be able to ask the seller to pay for this?

I've had a lot of experience on Ebay... you have an auction #, I'll look at it to see what I think

Just a thought though... if the hard drive quit working during the shipping process, you might get that error message. Then it's kinda hard to prove who's responsible; seller or shipper.

But there are still options for repairing this PC!!

Edited by gclipse02, 03 December 2008 - 02:06 PM.

[Ericak]

Its a Sony Vaio. Do you think I would be able to ask the seller to pay for this?

I've had a lot of experience on Ebay... you have an auction #, I'll look at it to see what I think

Thank you SO much! I just sent you a message with the info! I really appreciate this!!

[gclipse02]

Just for the record, the laptop being discussed is a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ240E.

My thoughts are that the hard drive is either damaged or the boot sector has been corrupted on it. I would say the first step now is to check BIOS. Should tell you whether the hard drive is detected or not?

Ericak, look at the screen when you first turn it on. Look for a "F2 for setup" or something similar on the first screen up. This should take you into BIOS setup. It may take a couple times of booting the computer to catch the right button at the right time. Let us know if you can get into it, and what brand BIOS it says at the top of the screen. (Pheonix Bios for example, version # etc.)

[Ericak]

Should I leave the recovery disk in there when I boot it up or take it out?