PCG-7M1M

[oldcelt]

This laptop will no longer boot.  It can't be booted from Safe Mode neither can it be started with 'Last Known Good Configuration'.  It just keeps recycling the start-up procedure to arrive at the same option screen which is then standard screen presented by XP when Windows has shut down unexpecrtedly.

I tried to find a recovery partition by pressing F12 (no joy); F11(no joy) and Esc (comes up with an option to boot from 1. Optical Drive; 2. Floppy Disk; 3. +Hard Disk; 4. Network.

I don't know what the '+' sign means in front of option 3: is it significant?

Help please?

Ken

Message was edited by: oldcelt

Message was edited by: oldcelt

[rich912 · Accepted solution]

Hi Ken,

You are quoting the chassis number – I think you will find that your model is VGN-FS515. You will find this on the screen surround or above the keyboard.

I assume that you have not created recovery media so are unable to boot and recover using the optical drive?

To access the hard drive recovery utility tap F10 when you see the Vaio logo. For more details have a look at the following link.

http://genesis.sony-europe.com/instranet/ccil_sony/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=35564&l=en_GB&m=VGN-...

Rich

[oldcelt]

Thanks Rich

Exactly as you said.  Not easy to spot the model as I'm unfamiliar with the machine because it isn't mine.

Perfect recovery including all drivers - many thanks.

Ken

[rich912]

You're very welcome Ken:smileyhappy:

[Jodiebailey]

Hi

I am having exactly the same problem as Ken but I pressed the F10 key at the VAIO logo but nothing happened.  Please help

Many thanks

Jodie

[rich912]

Hi Jodie,

What is your model number and which operating system are you running?

Rich

[Jodiebailey]

Hi

Please bare with me I'm a major technophobe!! Its a VAIO VGN-FS515B on Windows XP.

Hope that's what you needed 🙂

[rich912]

Hi Jodie,

Can you check that the recovery partition is still present – Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management. The recovery partition should be at the start of disk 0 and be marked as Healthy (EISA Configuration) without drive letter.

Rich