Problems with my Vaio K215Z

[conan_mic]

Hi
I have a Vaio K215Z and had some prblems with it:
1.after re-partitioning with PartitionMagic8.0, in order to install Linux on a new partition, the hard drive doesn't appear to have problems, but if I start PartitionMagic again a warning message appearts: "IT SEEMS THAT DISC1 (57231mb 7296c 255h 63s) HAS PARTITIONS CREATED WITH GEOMETRY OF A DIFFERENT UNIT (16h 63s): IT'S A SERIOUS PROBLEM THAT CAN CAUSE A DATA LOSS. IT'S NECESSARY YOU DON'T MANIPULATE DISC PARTITIONS WITH THIS SOFTWARE OR WITH PRODUCTS OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM. MAKE A DATA BACKUP, ERASE ALL PARTITIONS, CREATE NEW ONES WITH THE CORRECT DISC GEOMETRY AND RESTORE DATA"
And now?!!! The computer seems to work properly, but this is a quite worryingly message.

2.After installation of MS Windows ServicePack2 the computer started to have problems with the freeze function: the computer doesn't restart properly, the progress white bar reach the end but after that nothing appens, i have to shut down the computer and restart it, without recovering the data freezed.
it doesn't happens each time, only sometimes.

3. I've seen in the Vaio-Link downloads page there's an upgrade for the optical drive of my Vaio. But in my device manager the name of the drive isn't "QSI CDRW/DVD SBW242C" as indicated on the web: my one is the "MATSHITA UJ-820D". Is there an upgrade for my drive too?! Where can I find it? why the name indicated on the k215z upgrade page is different from the one I really have on my Vaio??!

thanks to all of you can help me

[kee-lo_]

1) You'll need to format the disk and use FDISK to make the partitions.

2) Make sure you have all the latest updates from Windows Update

3) If there's not one there then there's no new updates.

[conan_mic]

Hi
1) ok
2) my computer is "windows-updated", the problem still remains
3) this is not a good thing:
I come in the vaio web-page, in the support area I put my vaio serial number, it is correctly identificated as k215z, there's written I can upgrade my optical drive with double-layer writing support, and then.. the drive isn't the one I have?!!
why Sony doesn't know wich drive model has that Vaio?
maybe Sony sells the same vaio model with different drives?
in this case the serial number should specify wich one I have, doesn't it?
I hope the firmware upgrade will be available soon for my drive too.

[SilverZero]

sorry to hear that, never had any problems with partition magic.

befor you erase all your partitions and do a repartitioning with FDISK (i am really sorry, but how stupid is that?)
depending on what file system you used for your linux installation (part magic can handle ext2 ext3 and swap, but for some distris they have reisser fs or some other dynamic file systems, which are probably not reconiced by partition magic which gives you the weired warning message.

if your system works proberly after you installed linux, there is no reason to reinstall everything. if your partition table would be messed up, there is no way your system would boot without a boot / rescue floppy / cd.

freezing: i had the same problem after i installed a patch from ms, take a look at the vaio knowledge database if your model is listed for any problems with sp2

there are often several models of drives used in the same laptop series, looks like you are unlucky.

Please do me a favor and dont mess with your partitions with fdisk until you really know what you are doing.

[kee-lo_]

Yeah I guess you have a point there Silver, but if he needs to remove the linux partitions so the VAIO recovery system works then there's not much he can do except use FDISK or a Linux alternative.

Maybe I am wrong?