32bit revovery disk boots but screen says theres no operating system.

W

Warm Lisa

Member
I downloaded and burned the Vista 32 bit recovery disk for my Sony vaio. I turned the Laptop on and it booted from the CD. When I got to the screen to choose repair or install I clicked on repair. It went to a screen that says: "System Recovery Options" "Select an operating system to repair and click next. If you do not see your operating system listed, click load drivers to load drivers for your hard disks." Since I didn't see anything listed under operating system, I clicked load drivers. Another little box pops-up and says: "Insert the installation media for the device and click OK to select the driver." I have no idea what this means so I click ok. Now another screen comes that says "open" at the top. It says "look in" with a drop down menu next it. When I click the arrow to open the drop down menu and the choices are " sources, Desktop, System, Public, Com puter, Local Disk (C), CD Drive (D), Recovery (E), Boot (X), Sources." To the left are: RECENT PLACES, SYSTEM, COMPUTER.

I have no idea what to do now. Can someone please advise me on my next move. Why does the disk seem to work so flawlessly for everyone else, but the minute I go to use it.... more problems! Any and all sugestions greatly appreciated, no matter how small. BTW, I am using the disk because when I turned on the laptop 2 weeks ago, it did not boot. It repeatedly went to "windows error recovery" screen. The PC was a gift so I don't have the installation disk that came with it. Then I found this site. I don't even know if this is what I need. I've been doing various google searches for the past 2-3 weeks for things like "download repair disk' "download windows installation disk" so that's how I ended up at neosmart. Gurus I really need you!! Thanks
 
Hi Lisa, welcome to NST.
This sometimes happens (can't see the system to repair), when there's a second HDD other than the one with the broken boot.
Also, the repair can sometimes work even when there's nothing it can see.
First thing to try is ignore the "load drivers" message and click "next" anyway.
Sometimes this will do the 1st stage of the repair succesfully.
If it does, you'll see your system next time you boot the CD.
The "repair your computer" / "startup repair" sequence from the booted CD will probably need to be done 2 or 3 times before it finally fixes everything. (It's a bit stupid, and can only deal with one item per pass).
If you're unlucky and it doesn't work as suggested above, and you do have 2 HDDs, try disconnecting the 2nd, leaving just the one with the broken boot, before attempting the auto-repair.
 
Thx for replying Terry. OK so this time when I started, it booted from the disk and went to a screen: WINDOWS BOOT MANAGER. The error message says:

"Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer."
"This error can be caused by unplugging a removable storage device such as an external usb drive while the device is in use, or by faulty hardware such as a hard drive or CD-ROM drive that is failing. Make sure any removable storage is properly connected and then restart you computer"

Status: 0xc00000e9
Info: an unexpected i/o error has occurred.

So I removed the disk and restarted, and it does what it was doing before, which is go to the windows error recovery screen. I inserted the disk and booted from it and it went to that windows boot manager screen again. I have no idea what to do. Any suggestions?? Your help is sooo appreciated! Thanks
 
Are you saying that booting the recovery CD with the system unchanged since your first post, now results in a completely different error ? Or did you disconnect a HDD as I suggested ?
Sony Vaio, I'm led to believe will access its hidden recovery partition by hitting F10 when you see the VAIO splash screen as you power-up.
If you can access it, it should give you the option of creating a set of backup disks (which I would do for future safety if I were you), and the ability to restore your C: disk or the entire PC to factory condition.
The specific instructions can be found here, but you'll need to enter the details of your PC (model number etc) to see them.

(you might need a country specific version of that URL if the UK one doesn't accept your model number as valid)
 
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OK, i'm not sure what happened with that send error message but anyway I got it to go to the blue install/repair screen. Can you please tell me hoe to disconnect a HDD, I have no idea what that means. Also, when I get to the repair screen where it says choose a recovery option, which option should I select? I think it should be System Repair but I just wanted to make sure. Thanks
 
Warm Lisa said:
OK, i'm not sure what happened with that send error message but anyway I got it to go to the blue install/repair screen. Can you please tell me hoe to disconnect a HDD, I have no idea what that means. Also, when I get to the repair screen where it says choose a recovery option, which option should I select? I think it should be System Repair but I just wanted to make sure. Thanks
Click to expand...

Ok...so which one are we disconnecting here? :lol: The one that needs to be disconnected is the one that is not broken, not the one that is...:wink: Yes, you would run Startup Repair 2-3 times from the DVD which will hopefully fix the issue.

-Coolname007
 
Now when I click start-up repair it does it's thing for a minute and then a window with message says: windows cannot repair this computer automatically." I guess I don't have to ask what that means. Would it make sense at this point to buy the installation disk from Sony and try and re-install the whole thing or should I just accept this as a total lost?
 
If the F10 didn't get you into the Sony recovery, and the rest of the steps here don't fix the problem, then getting Sony to provide the disks is probably a good option, and cheaper than buying a copy of Vista.
Keep trying for the moment, and there will be someone around to help if you get stuck.
 
Warm Lisa said:
Now when I click start-up repair it does it's thing for a minute and then a window with message says: windows cannot repair this computer automatically." I guess I don't have to ask what that means. Would it make sense at this point to buy the installation disk from Sony and try and re-install the whole thing or should I just accept this as a total lost?
Click to expand...

Try it a couple more times, and it will hopefully fix it. :smile: Startup Repair unfortunately can only apparently fix one problem a pass, and other times it gives you the message that it "cannot repair the computer automatically" when what it really means it just needs to be run a few times more. :wink:

-Coolname007
 
Hi Terry.

I have ran the startup repair for 3 times with the end message "Windows cannot repair this computer automatically" The diagnosis and repair details reads:

Root cause found:

System volume on disk is corrupt

Repair action : File System Error (chkdsk)

Result : Failed. Error code = 0x1f

Do you think i should continue trying the startup repair, or could you suggest anything else.

Many Thanks, Mark.
 
Hi Mark, welcome to NST.
Boot the recovery disk again, but on the 2nd screen, don't use "startup repair", use the recovery console and run a chkdsk /f to attempt a fix of the bad blocks on the HDD.
It'll take a while so go get yourself a coffee (or beer depending on the weather and your inclination), and when it's finished, try the startup repair again.
 
Hello Terry,

It seems like you have resolved these problems before but i am having the same problem as the original post. I downloaded and tried to install vista SP1 but wasnt working so i decided to uninstall it but then i got the message "Missing BootMgr" and I have been trying to do all the things i have read on this thread but still nothing. I also tried to use the "start up repair" but i still found nothing. Also when i clicked the repair your computer under the windows vista dvd cd, there is no Operating system found. Please helpp
 
Hi Morph, welcome to NST.
Boot the Recovery DVD, but on the second screen don't use "startup repair", use the system restore option and go back to the restore point that WUD set before it started to install SP1.
When you reinstall SP1 afterwards don't be impatient .
If the install appears to hang (blank screen, frozen keyboard and mouse) at 99% completed, don't reboot.
You should notice that the HDD LED is still blinking, indicating that the update is still progressing. Go away and have a cup of tea and a nice slice of cake, do a crossword puzzle and come back in half an hour, giving the update plenty of time to finish doing its stuff.
Then, unless the HDD still seeems busy, reboot and let the post-reboot update phase finish (that's when the bootmgr gets replaced)
 
Hi Terry.

I've run into the same problem as Mark71 in an attempt to repair a friend's Acer Aspire 5570Z laptop. I'm running into further trouble when I try to switch to the C drive to run chkdsk /f at the command prompt. I get the message "The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable". Am I doing something wrong, and if not, is there another approach I can try? Thank you.
 
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