New Vaio won't allow second operating system

[Roseman]

Sony Vaio VPCE3M1E

Actually to say that, 'New Vaio Won't allow second operating system.' is an understatement, I even went as far as buying a new Sata drive today so that I could install any operating system from scratch. This is what happens:

Irrespective of how I go about it either with a new partition on the original drive or on the drive I bough today the same thing happens, The new installation commences as per normal with the various drivers being loaded. Eventually the installation process arrives at the point where it says, 'Starting Windows' and this is the point at which the computer stops with the following message:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is your first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.

Technical informsion:
*** STOP: 0x00000007B (0xF78D2524,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000)


Since the stop code signifies: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE I thought it might be something to do with the Sata set-up in BIOS but there is nothing that's alterable. The BIOS is:

American Megatrends
Version R1140Y8
ME Version 6.0.31.1208

At this point I'm lost - any thoughts?

 

[Mark56]

What OS are you trying to install as a dual boot. If it is XP then the problem will be that XP has not got the required SATA drivers. Follow this for further information.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml

Guide on XP and SATA settings in Bios

http://www.mydigitallife.info/windo...d-find-any-sata-hard-disk-drive-on-ahci-mode/

 

[Roseman]

Thanks Mark,

It looks as though you've hit the nail on the head. It transpires that the XP installation doesn't have the appropriate Sata drivers or rather Sata Controller drivers. The links you provided do point to a solution but first I need to work out which Sata Controller my Vaio is using - I'm now looking into how to do that. Thanks for replying and pointing me in the right direction.

 

[Leeky]

That is simple... Go to your manufacturers website, head to the support pages, enter your laptop model designation information, and it will then give you the drivers you can download.

Don't be surprised if drivers for XP do not exist though, but you might get lucky. Windows OS' from Vista onwards do not require SATA drivers during installation as they're in-built. I strongly suggest you consider using Windows 7.

If you must have Windows XP for software compatibility reasons, maybe running it virtually as a guest OS might be an option.

 

[Roseman]

Does Vienna have the drivers built in?

 

[Leeky]

Microsoft Windows Vista does I believe, as does Windows 7. To be honest, if it ships with Windows 7, I highly recommend you keep it, as its faster and more secure than XP/Vista, and is current.

 

[Mark56]

I just had a look on the Vaio site under your model number and it only has drivers for Windows 7. So it looks like you may be out of luck unless you can get the driver from the manufacturer of the motherboard.

Another good reason to move on from XP is that it will not be supported any further by microsoft in about 4 years time. By then we will have already seen Windows 8 and possibly 9 and XP will really only be safe to use on a non internet PC.