Operating System not found & Hard-headed Sony support.

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! :mad:

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). :)

Quote:

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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). :)

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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! :-(

Quote:

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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.

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

-Peter

Quote:

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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! :-(

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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xpuser357

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

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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.

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.

Quote:

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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.

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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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OMGmissinglink

You could try removing the HD and inspect the connection's then retry inserting the drive and pray it boots.

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I just tried this, no luck...

-Peter

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

Quote:

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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

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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

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

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.

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!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reddman

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!

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Alright. So the fact is my hard drive is being held on by a thread. What excatly do I need to do/buy/download to backup all my files and is it possible to backup all my programs also? I do have a copy of my registry saved somewhere on my HD, (*.reg file I think...) I just don't want to have to find all those damn CDs of the programs that I had on my laptop. (Most of which are long gone.) Programs like Office 2003 Pro, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Frontpage 2003, and the list goes on... I mean, if I copy the programs from C:/Program Files wouldn't it be possible to save them all?

Thanks for all the help so far guys!

-Peter

Goin' with the Bad Drive gang, too. If you get lucky, you might be able to clone your old drive using a notebook to desktop drive adapter kit (about $12-15 at most computer stores), but I wouldn't bet much on it. Still, Norton Ghost or a Pre-Symantec Drive Image might work. You have a better shot at getting your data copied, though I just don't know of a reliable way to transfer your software. Some publishers will replace lost disks, others will just want to sell you the newest version. Check with support for the products in question.

I doubt the mainboard is bad. Problems with failing drive electronics will produce all the symptoms with slow boot, etc. you've described. On the warranty front, you might check with the drive manufacturer and see if you can't just warranty the drive directly through them. I have done tons of work on Vaio's that were still in warranty, but the customers couldn't deal with Sony's slow turn-around times, bonehead support, or whatever, and preferred to pay instead. Even if you have to buy a drive, they don't cost much, and I think you can handle the installation yourself.

Ghost should do the job. Make an image on a different drive or CD/DVD and restore it on the new HDD. Hint: MiniPE has Ghost in it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CeeBee

Ghost should do the job. Make an image on a different drive or CD/DVD and restore it on the new HDD. Hint: MiniPE has Ghost in it.

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Awesome. But where do I download this "MiniPE?" I googled it and only got adsites/bad links. Can you throw me the link? Thanks

-Peter

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.

The technician telling you to take it out and you taking out the harddrive are 2 vastly different things.
There are a number of ways to tell if something on a computer has been tampered with

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.

No single antivirus program on the planet is good for every single one.
And frankly a virus may be the least of your worries since it kinda obvious you use some type of file sharing program.
I would be more concerened about a rootkit or some program that can destroy the first sector on the HD

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.)

Its a 2.5 to 3.5 harddrive adapter. They are usually avaliable at a lot of computer stores for a few bucks

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...

I have opened a number of cdrom,cdrw,dvd, and dvdrw drives with apaper clip. none ever broke that i saw. Something else is likely wrong

If it is a Hardware problem Did you drop it? 4 months old I wonder what
harddrive will die at 4 months? My western Digital is still going at 3.5 years
and going and going :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xpuser357

If it is a Hardware problem Did you drop it? 4 months old I wonder what
harddrive will die at 4 months? My western Digital is still going at 3.5 years
and going and going :)

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Oh stuff and nonsense..almost any harddrive manufacturer has drives that can fail at any time..I get three or four a week in here in desktops and laptops that fail in the first few months of use..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xpuser357

If it is a Hardware problem Did you drop it? 4 months old I wonder what
harddrive will die at 4 months? My western Digital is still going at 3.5 years
and going and going :)

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No. I have treated my computer like gold ever since the first day I got it. Never droped it, in fact, there isn't even one scratch on it! I guess it's just my horrible luck...

-Peter

A manufacturer can say that their product has, for instance, a mean time between failures of 200,000 hours, but that is just a statistical projection. Even if you accept this as relevant, a bell curve has 2 ends. Pyro, you just wound up on the wrong end.

Update:

So the technican came over my house today. The minute he turned on the computer, it started booting Windows XP no problem. By this time I was like WTF? And he's like "Is there any problem here?" So as soon as I saw my desktop, I immeditaly grabbed the nearest DVD-R and pluged in into the drive (Which DID open now for some reason...) I went to click on My Computer and the PC lagged for a minute or two. After waiting a while we were both discouraged with the blue screen of death.

Now it was time to replace the hard drive. The technican opened the PC (And didn't find any traces of me opening it previously AT ALL I might add...) and replaced the hard drive in a matter of seconds. After putting everything back together, he powered on my laptop. the computer booted up as normal but about 20 seconds later, guess what popped up?

"Operating System not found"

And this was on a NEW HARD DRIVE! (New as in all the factory settings were on it e.i. Windows XP Pro was previously installed on the drive.) This left the repairman stumped... He then went to his bag and pulled out 2 recovery CDs and tryed to put them in my PC, but the tray refused to open. I then helped the man out by getting a paper clip, taking the DVD-R out, and forcing the CD in. After rebooting the computer several times, it refused to read from the CD. Then the last couple of times, the light on the drive came on, but the CD wouldn't boot.

So in the end, the technician told me he'll have to take the laptop and work on it in his own personal time to figure out whats wrong with it. (If he scratches it I'll @#$%ing kill him.) But right now, he saids "I'm as confused as you are." LoL, a repairman that doesn't know what to do.

What do you guys think it might be???

-Peter

In order of possibility...overheating, bad motherboard, bad power delivery, bad memory

A lot of onsite techs have only a certain amount of time to do repairs..they are usually conteacted by third party warranty repair companies. One of the reasons I quit doing that for Dell was because of time limitations and incorrect parts, etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by geoscomp

In order of possibility...overheating, bad motherboard, bad power delivery, bad memory

A lot of onsite techs have only a certain amount of time to do repairs..they are usually conteacted by third party warranty repair companies. One of the reasons I quit doing that for Dell was because of time limitations and incorrect parts, etc.

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Could this rule out the "Bad hard drive" theory by any chance?

-Peter

I am gonna go with bad motherboard or overheating.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WildPyro

Could this rule out the "Bad hard drive" theory by any chance?

-Peter

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Not completely, but the chances of both being bad in exactly the same way are pretty small

Bad cables/connectors or bootsector/bios virus maybe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mayet

Bad cables/connectors or bootsector/bios virus maybe.

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There are no cables connected to my laptop other than the AV Plug. And the chances of ME getting a virus of any kind are slim to none.

-Peter

Final Update:

After multiple experiments, the technician finally concluded that the problem was my mother board. After telling SONY about the problem, they agreed to ship me a new one. Two days later, the technician brought my laptop back with a brand new motherboard and it is now working flawlessly. (With all my files still on it I might add!) :-D

Thanks everybody for your help and believe me, I will be backing my files ALOT more often. (I'm doing it right now.) :-)

-Peter