Vaio Optical CD/DVD RW

[78les]

Hi Can anyone help me please ?
I have a vaio PCG-GRX516SP (with a Toshiba SD-R6012 drive) Which i brought when leaving England and moving (retiring) to Turkey at Heathrow Airport.
The problem is its been ok for two years, but a friend of mine brought over from England some blank DVDs, Tried to record these and it gave me a message firmware out of date, so i went to the Sony site and found a firmware update which i installed, no probs. I then tried to transfer my Sony Camcorder contents to DVD to send to my family in England, But it was so jerky that i could'ent us it, so i thought i would use the recovery disc's to clear my C: hard drive and get rid of all the rubbish i collected over the last 2 years. But now i have a laptop which is completey useless, nothing at all. I can install the first recovery disc but after that is will not accept the 2nd disc and i get the message "missing operating System". I don't know how to get into the bias, i can't do anything with it. I've tried the Sony website but just get sent around in circles, as i live in Turkey it will cost me a fortune to phone Sony, and i don't speak Turkish good enough to contact Sony in Istanbul, So can anyone out there help me?
hope to here from someone
Les

[kee-lo_]

Hi Les,

Sounds like your hard disk has died, the "operating system not found" message is very common.

To confirm it, I suggest downloading Everest Home Edition from their homepage - this should tell you if the SMART failure system has detected a problem.

[78les]

Hi thanks for your speedy reply, I downloaded the everest home edition ( i have a friends computer on loan while he's in England) But don't really see how this can help, i can't do anything with my Vaio except load the first recovery disc, if i write the everest program to a cdrom will the vaio pick it up?
Thanks for your help so far
Les

[kee-lo_]

So you can't boot into Windows?
Then your hard disk has died.

[78les]

Its a same but my vaio has not got a floppy drive so the only way in is by the dvd/cd rom drive otherwise i would load on anything to get it working even dos 6.
Most of my photo's and video's are on the 😧 Hard drive so i don't really want to lose them but only as a last resort.
thanks Les

[kee-lo_]

Les,

You can get it changed by a computer shop, then you ask to keep the drive, then you can get a caddy to put the drive in and then copy it to DVD etc.

[78les]

Its Taken a while but i have now managed to get an adaptor which let me transfer my hard disc data to another computer.
I've had the computer shop check out my hard disc and my dvd/cd rw, the hard disc is fine but the dvd/cd rw is useless no good at all.
So now i have the problem of getting the operating system on my computer, have you any idea's?
I've tried the most obvious things like getting the computer shop to put win xp on the hard disc and then put the hard disc back in the laptop but the laptop would'ent reconise it.
I think i need to get another dvd/cd rw but where from in Turkey i hav'ent a clue and nether do the computer shops.
So any help would be greatful.
Les

[boeingpete]

Its only a suggestion, but with my Vaio the hardrive is partitioned. (C: and 😧 drive). If it were my machine I would do a low level format and then try using your recovery disk.

Not saying its the answer, but it has worked for me in the past, especially if the problem lies in the Boot Sector.

Lets face it you've got nothing to lose and the recovery disks and the Sony hardware is designed to run the recovery discs directly from the CD-Rom without the O/S being loaded or a Boot Disk.

[kee-lo_]

Les,

They can do a network install of XP from another PC.

[78les]

I've managed to get win xp on and working, (Don't laugh) i put the hard disc in my friend computer and 1st tried installing win xp which was ok on the desk top but when put it back in the laptop "nothing" so i formatted c: drive on the hard disc to Fat32 and installed win98, put it in the laptop loaded straight away.
I then on the desk top split d: drive into d: & e: and copied win xp directly to e: drive put it back in the laptop and run win xp from win98. it went straight in no probs at all. But i now have the problem of 3 partions, but its better than nothing in fact it a lot quicker than the proper sony setup, and i installed off the vaio disc all the relevant drivers.
But when i can aford a new dvd/cd i will fit it and install the recovery disc's
So thankyou for all your help you've beena great help
Regards Les