Hi,

 

I'm completely stuck and have no idea what to do. As far as i'm aware, my laptop can't be fixed. Whenever I turn on my laptop, it says 'Your VAIO failed to start windows. No operating system could be found." I tried using the recovery disc but it says the drivers can't be found. So what shall I do?

 

It was a £900 laptop and I've only had it 6 months.

If it says 'No Operating System Could Be Found', the most likely thing that comes to mind is either hard drive corruption or failure. Perhaps try booting to Ubuntu on a removable HDD to see if it is a problem with your VAIO hard drive or the BIOS. 

 

I'm not sure if it's even possible to reformat the VAIO's hard drive and reinstall Windows if you get a message like that.

If it says 'No Operating System Could Be Found', the most likely thing that comes to mind is either hard drive corruption or failure. Perhaps try booting to Ubuntu on a removable HDD to see if it is a problem with your VAIO hard drive or the BIOS. 

 

I'm not sure if it's even possible to reformat the VAIO's hard drive and reinstall Windows if you get a message like that.

I've just installed Ubuntu and that works fine. What do you mean you're not sure if it's possible to reformat my hard drive?

 

Does this mean there is nothing I can do?

Edited December 22, 201312 yr by JustZach

Before even considering reformatting, you need to make sure that your hard drive is fully connected (this happened to me before; it just turned out to be a loose connection). If it is and the same problem occurs you're looking more towards the corrupt hard drive type of problem. Reformatting may not be possible if you can't access an OS on your Hard Drive.

 

Only after that, I'd start considering a repair from Sony themselves, you said it's only 6 months old so it should still be under warranty.

Before even considering reformatting, you need to make sure that your hard drive is fully connected (this happened to me before; it just turned out to be a loose connection). If it is and the same problem occurs you're looking more towards the corrupt hard drive type of problem. Reformatting may not be possible if you can't access an OS on your Hard Drive.

 

Only after that, I'd start considering a repair from Sony themselves, you said it's only 6 months old so it should still be under warranty.

But I can run Ubuntu so surely there is nothing wrong with my hard drive?

If you're running Ubuntu from your Hard Drive, then that is a fair indication that your hard drive is fine and it is simply a problem with Windows.

 

If you're running Ubuntu from a removable hard drive/USB, then that doesn't help with troubleshooting your hard drive - but at least you know it's not a BIOS issue.

If you're running Ubuntu from your Hard Drive, then that is a fair indication that your hard drive is fine and it is simply a problem with Windows.

 

If you're running Ubuntu from a removable hard drive/USB, then that doesn't help with troubleshooting your hard drive - but at least you know it's not a BIOS issue.

I ran Ubuntu from my USB, but then I installed it to hard drive so I disconnected USB and it runs from hard drive now.

So if I know the hard drive is fine, what do I do to get windows back?

Switching to PM, this could be a long-winded process.