I have searched the forums for a similar problem and the most I can discern is that Sony Vaios are a pain in the rear... Here is the situation:
I have a Sony Vaio PCG-SR5K that recently had a hard disk failure which apparently wiped out the OS on the disk (or at least fried the boot sector). One day I was working and abruptly got the blue screen of death, after which attempts to start the computer resulted only in a message of "OS not found".
I have the "recovery" disks for the machine but not the actual "install" disks for the OS, as apparently Sony does not trust it's customers with a copy of the actual software... However, this is not the main problem.
The problem is that the PC card slot stopped working a while back, and this is the method by which the CD-ROM drive that came with the machine attaches. After I could no longer use this drive I simply started using another USB linked CD-ROM drive to read CDs with. However, the machine WILL NOT BOOT from any device other than the hard drive (which is messed up) or a disk drive connected via the PC card slot (which is broken).
Theoretically the machine could still work if I could only get an OS back on it. I have read that Vaios are a complete pain in the rear to work around problems with. The only reason I have the thing is that I got it for free (that tells you something) and I use it mainly for email and internet browsing. (I also have a desktop - NOT a Sony) but it is nicer not being tethered to a desk.)
I actually would rather move to a linux system, but I understand that Vaios are even MORE of a pain in that regard.
The main question, however, is this: is there a way to reinstall the OS without the PC card drive slot functioning? I can't just clone the HDD because obviously there is something wrong on it. I have removed the HDD and tried looking at the contents with my other computer using an external 2.5" case. There were problems looking at one of the partitions (the one the boot sector is on of course) and I had to run checkdisk with the fix option to "fix" it and be able to read it. Afterward I could view the files but some were corrupted and some were missing. I could try to install the OS to the disk using my other computer, but suspect that won't work because of the differences in BIOS, etc.
Any help (or hope!) is appreciated!
I have a Sony Vaio PCG-SR5K that recently had a hard disk failure which apparently wiped out the OS on the disk (or at least fried the boot sector). One day I was working and abruptly got the blue screen of death, after which attempts to start the computer resulted only in a message of "OS not found".
I have the "recovery" disks for the machine but not the actual "install" disks for the OS, as apparently Sony does not trust it's customers with a copy of the actual software... However, this is not the main problem.
The problem is that the PC card slot stopped working a while back, and this is the method by which the CD-ROM drive that came with the machine attaches. After I could no longer use this drive I simply started using another USB linked CD-ROM drive to read CDs with. However, the machine WILL NOT BOOT from any device other than the hard drive (which is messed up) or a disk drive connected via the PC card slot (which is broken).
Theoretically the machine could still work if I could only get an OS back on it. I have read that Vaios are a complete pain in the rear to work around problems with. The only reason I have the thing is that I got it for free (that tells you something) and I use it mainly for email and internet browsing. (I also have a desktop - NOT a Sony) but it is nicer not being tethered to a desk.)
I actually would rather move to a linux system, but I understand that Vaios are even MORE of a pain in that regard.
The main question, however, is this: is there a way to reinstall the OS without the PC card drive slot functioning? I can't just clone the HDD because obviously there is something wrong on it. I have removed the HDD and tried looking at the contents with my other computer using an external 2.5" case. There were problems looking at one of the partitions (the one the boot sector is on of course) and I had to run checkdisk with the fix option to "fix" it and be able to read it. Afterward I could view the files but some were corrupted and some were missing. I could try to install the OS to the disk using my other computer, but suspect that won't work because of the differences in BIOS, etc.
Any help (or hope!) is appreciated!
