Operating System not found & Hard-headed Sony support.

**WildPyro** · February 20th, 2006, 03:54 PM

Hi,

I currently own a Sony VAIO notebook and this morning for no apparent reason, I powered on my laptop and received this message at the command prompt:

"Operating System not found"

I have absolutely no idea how this could have happened. In fact, I’ve treated my computer like gold ever since the first day that I got it. (I always surfed the internet at high security, never installed any harmful software, never even left anyone touch it, it was $3,000 for crying out loud!) So just 10 minutes ago, I called Sony support because I knew my computer was still under warranty. (It's only 4 months old...) And Sony (Being the ignorant people that they are.) didn't even make an attempt to care about all the important files I had stored within my computer! (Mostly 3200+ songs, but also school assignments, music videos, and important programs which I've lost the CD for.) They just told me that: "It seems like both your hard drive and your motherboard (Because the BIOS itself took about 2-3 minutes to load up.) are fried, a Sony technician will arrive in a couple days to replace your old hardware."

Well what if I don't want new hardware?! What if I NEED those things I have on my laptop? Isn't there ANYTHING I can do? They say no, but I'm sure you guys can out smart anyone of those guys that work for Sony any day. Please, someone tell me if there is a way to save all of my precious files!

-Peter

P.S. - As for the technical aspect, I have a Sony VAIO VGN-FS690P with Windows XP Professional SP2 and I cannot load windows normally, run windows in safe mode, (Holding F8.) or even run the VAIO recovery utility. (By pressing and holding F10) I simply get a blue screen when I try which states:

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

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. It 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 information:

*** STOP: 0x0000007B (OxF7CB6640, 0xC0000024, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)"

The ONLY thing that seems to work is my BIOS (PhoenixBIOS version R0040J1.) but even that takes a good minute or two to start up. Someone please help me!

**xpuser357** · February 20th, 2006, 07:43 PM

0xc000007b is a error that a executable or library is corrupted while trying to
start up. You have a very nasty virus on your computer and if you cannot run in safe mode. hopefully one of these wizards may be able to help
(Technicians).

**WildPyro** · February 20th, 2006, 07:59 PM

Originally Posted by xpuser357

0xc000007b is a error that a executable or library is corrupted while trying to
start up. You have a very nasty virus on your computer and if you cannot run in safe mode. hopefully one of these wizards may be able to help
(Technicians).

I find that very hard to believe, I haven't downloaded anything in like 2 weeks! Is there anything else it could be? Because I'm pretty possitive it is not a virus.

-Peter

P.S. - In fact, just yesterday, I ran two different anti-virus programs: Norton and Trend Micro. (Neither of which found anything.) Trust me, I'm not that careless! :-(

**xpuser357** · February 20th, 2006, 08:31 PM

Originally Posted by WildPyro

I find that very hard to believe, I haven't downloaded anything in like 2 weeks! Is there anything else it could be? Because I'm pretty possitive it is not a virus.

-Peter

P.S. - In fact, just yesterday, I ran two different anti-virus programs: Norton and Trend Micro. (Neither of which found anything.) Trust me, I'm not that careless! :-(

Go to google with every one of errors and you will see the results. :

**geoscomp** · February 20th, 2006, 10:18 PM

Originally Posted by xpuser357

Go to google with every one of errors and you will see the results. :

the fact that the bios takes 3 minutes to boot up suggests a hardware problem rather than a software one..a bad drive or an unstable motherboard can both cause significant data corruption of any and every kind. I think you should get a convertor and copy at least all your data files and music, etc. so you won't lose that. You may have to take ownership of the files to copy them. Some onsite repair companies will leave you a box to mail back your old harddrive after they replace it, allowing you time to recover data. After you get all the data off you can scan it with an intact virus/malware scan, and then try running disk utilities on the drive to find out any problems.
oh..and btw, even though that stop error CAN be associated with a boot sector virus, it is also associated with hardware problems.

**Mayet** · February 20th, 2006, 10:19 PM

Hey there, That is bad news indeed. Often to recover clients data from XP systems I slave the old hard drive into a windows 2000 machine and copy the data off. Another XP system does not usually work and thats why i use win2k to get the data.

Often also you can scan the drive thats slaved using an online scanner or the onboard anti virus.

Did you try restoring it to a previous restore point? If its software related that often works.

**WildPyro** · February 20th, 2006, 10:46 PM

Originally Posted by Mayet

Hey there, That is bad news indeed. Often to recover clients data from XP systems I slave the old hard drive into a windows 2000 machine and copy the data off. Another XP system does not usually work and thats why i use win2k to get the data.

Often also you can scan the drive thats slaved using an online scanner or the onboard anti virus.

Did you try restoring it to a previous restore point? If its software related that often works.

Yes, the minute I saw the "Operating System not found" message, I turned off the computer for a good 30 minutes. After half an hour, I tried turning it on again, surprisingly it worked! (However it took nearly 5 minutes to load to the Windows XP screen...) As soon as I logged into Windows, I did a system restore. Ever since then, I have not been able to get the computer back up...

-Peter

**Ferrit** · February 21st, 2006, 02:17 AM

If you have removed the harddrive the warranty is over thats for sure.
Second 3200 + songs and yer saying you havent downloaded in 2weeks.
That suggests you have downloaded before.
So thats every reason to suspect a virus as sometimes they dont do any damage for awhile.
if you have now removed this harddrive and voided the warranty. I would suggested getting an adapter and connecting it to a desktop pc and inspecting the harddrive before sony touches it to see what can be revcovered.
Also if it is XP you could also try using a regular xp cd and boot to it and see if its possible to do a repair install. But this is only after you connect it to a pc and recover whatever is possible

**WildPyro** · February 21st, 2006, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by Ferrit

If you have removed the harddrive the warranty is over thats for sure.
Second 3200 + songs and yer saying you havent downloaded in 2weeks.
That suggests you have downloaded before.
So thats every reason to suspect a virus as sometimes they dont do any damage for awhile.
if you have now removed this harddrive and voided the warranty. I would suggested getting an adapter and connecting it to a desktop pc and inspecting the harddrive before sony touches it to see what can be revcovered.
Also if it is XP you could also try using a regular xp cd and boot to it and see if its possible to do a repair install. But this is only after you connect it to a pc and recover whatever is possible

First off, I'd like you to tell me how on earth will they ever know I removed the hard drive? The last time I had a problem with my DVD Drive and a technician let me take it out my self. Trust me, my warranty is still good.

When I said I hadn't downloaded anything in two weeks, I wasn't lying. I've had that many songs since I was in the 7th grade and any song I download, I run a virus check on each one. If there were such thing as a germaphobe with PCs, I'd be one.

What is this adapter called and where can I get one? Also, is there any way I can save the programs I have on the hard drive? (I did save the registry values.)

Booting from the Windows CD is out of the question since my DVD drive won't even open and after I forced it open with a paper clip, it didn't even make an attempt to even search for a CD...

-Peter

**WildPyro** · February 21st, 2006, 12:31 PM

I'd just like to add that all the music & music videos that I have on my PC are on about 3 of my friends PCs as well. (I did a direct file transfer to their PCs.) None of them have had/are having any problems. Please trust me, there is no possible way that it could be a virus. My hard drive/mother board simply died. (According to Sony.)

-Peter

**CeeBee** · February 21st, 2006, 02:40 PM

The fact that it started working again after "OS not found" suggests a hardware failure (I am ready to bet on the HDD). Try starting your PC with a BartPE or MiniPE CD and copy all the files to another machine (via network) or to a removable drive. You may have very few minutes of functioning left before the HDD takes the final break.
The lesson you should learn: BACKUP. I tell everyone, with today's storage media being so cheap, if you lose a file you deserve it.

**Reddman** · February 21st, 2006, 03:05 PM

I have to agree with Cee and Geo, your hard drive is dying. Listen to the hints and BACKUP NOW! I've seen this way too many times and I usually get the phone call when it's too late.

Good luck!

**Ferrit** · February 23rd, 2006, 12:13 PM

I am gonna go with bad motherboard or overheating.

**WildPyro** · February 20th, 2006, 08:18 PM

Originally Posted by OMGmissinglink

You could try removing the HD and inspect the connection's then retry inserting the drive and pray it boots, if no boot then you can use Laptop HD Converter and slave the drive to another PC and try to retrieve any files you wanted.

Is there any way to copy everything to my "new" hard drive? As in my old registry values and such?

-Peter