Operating System not found - help?

[huglazar]

I have a Vaio VGN-AR71ZU running windows vista.

It was fine, then internet explorer just hung. Vaio became unresponsive. After waiting an hour for anything to happen, I pressed the power button for 5 seconds to shut it down.

I waited a minute and started it up, but now get a black screen with "Operating System not found".

Repeatedly pressing F8 to get tot windows safe mode does not work

Repeatedly pressing F10 to get to recovery screen does not work

I do not have Vista discs as the Vaio came preloaded.

I do not have a boot disc.

Does anyone know if there is anything I can download to an external hard drive to help me start up?

[Blencogo]

You can download a bootable Vista repair disc from here: -

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

This should boot from your Vaio's DVD Drive and you can run a repair.

If this repair fails you need to check your hard drive(s) as there may be a fault.

[huglazar]

Downloaded it and burned to cd, then booted laptop off of the disc.

It brought up a "Install Windows" screen.

If I proceed, its not going to lose any of the files on the laptop is it? 

[Blencogo]

I don't think you can use this disc to install or reinstall Windows Vista.  It is just a bootable repair disc.

[huglazar]

Ok, clicked install, got the screen with Startup Repair.

Ran Startup Repair and got:

Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically

Problem Signature:

Problem Event Name:     StartupRepairV2

Problem Signature 01:     ExternalMedia

Problem Signature 02:     6.0.6000.16386.0.0.0.0

Problem Signature 03:     0

Problem Signature 04:     65537

Problem Signature 05:     unknown

Problem Signature 06:     NoHardDrive

Problem Signature 07:     0

Problem Signature 08:     0

Problem Signature 09:     unknown

Problem Signature 10:     1168

OS Version:                    6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1

Locale ID:                       1033

WTF???

Does this mean my hardrive is gone?

This VGN-AR71ZU has 2 320GB drives with RAID 0

Would both be gone? Is there anyway to get them back?

[Blencogo]

Both discs act as a single Volume.  If one drive fails - everything fails.

It would seem to be a hard drive fault.  Can you see the hard discs in the BIOS?  You should be able to access the BIOS screens by tapping F2 when you see the first Vaio logo when booting with the Repair Disc.

If the BIOS does not see the Hard Discs then you will need to replace them.

If the BIOS sees the discs it could possibly still be a corrupt SATA/RAID driver.

[huglazar]

The bios shows:

Hard Disk Drive 0: None

Hard Disk Drive 1: 320GB

This means that the 1st drive is gone/dead, right?

Is there any way to get the thing to boot off the 2nd drive? Or is that dead without the first one?

Any way to recover a dead drive? Or the data on the 2nd one?

[Blencogo]

If Drive 0 is dead then it will need to be replaced and you will probably have lost all data.  Drive 1 is OK and can be reused but it will need to be reformatted along with the new drive.  RAID 0 means your Vaio writes 'stripes' of data to one drive and then the other - so no one drive had all the data - they have half each in stripes of about 125MB.  If your data is very important, have a word with a data recovery firm.  This is an expensive operation - try Google.  I take it you do not have any backups?

Clutching at straws I know, but there is one other possibility you can check.  It is just possible that the hard drive interface connectors for Drive 1 may have become unplugged or are loose.

Check all the connections are good - you will need these diagrams to see where the connectors are situated.

[huglazar]

Thaanks for that. All connections fine.

The laptop was not bumped or dropped. Could it possibly be a corrupt raid driver?

[Blencogo]

I don't think so - if the BIOS cannot find it before the drivers are loaded it is almost certainly dead.

You may wish to contact one of Sony's Service Partners near to where you live for a second opinion.  There is a full list here: -

http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/contacts/asc.aspx?l=en_GB&m=VGN-AR71ZU