Computer help forum: sony vgn-fs415b will not boot past VAIO screen.

I'd focus on that while you consider ordering the restore media.

I applaud the idea of bootable CDs but the story is light. I can't tell if you tested the CDs on your machine or if the BIOS is set to boot from that and if there were some USB thing left plugged in.

Yes, torrent users are the first I see get whacked out machines. I think it's OK since they get burned and hopefully learn why the moderators don't like such things.
Bob

If I was unsure I could power down and unplug my hard disk's SATA cable and then test with impunity.

As to testing the HDD, I use bootable test CDs. I think the http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd has HDD tests on it.

Bob

I give up. I've tried various bootable discs, and no joy. I'm putting it down to a failed hard drive.
Thanks for the help.
Regards,
Dafydd.

Hi Bob,
I'm no expert could you tell me how to make/download said Ubuntu?
Regards,
Dafydd.

I knew that was coming, LOL.
Thanks for the link Bob, will try that.
Regards,
Dafydd.

Addendum.
BIOS only gives me boot options of
Optical
HDD
Network.

I've checked ram seating, hard drive seating, tried every which but loose, bios settings, no joy!
Gonna give it up now Bob, thanks a lot for your help.
Regards,
Dafydd, Wales U.K.

Sorry about the delay Bob, it's rugby season in the U.K. at the moment. I have not tried said discs on my Windows 7 machine because I see no point.

I downloaded Ubuntu from the link you gave me which
gave me an option to open with Roxio Creator which I have on my computer. I burned the ISO file to disc and tried it on the laptop.

The result was, instead of the cursor blinking 3 times, it went on for over a minute. Have I made a mistake in the burning of this file?
Regards,
Dafydd.
P.S Wales beat Scotland.

Thank you for the link Bob, I realise now that I might have made a mistake burning this cd. I will research it and get back to you.
All the best,
Dafydd.

I'm sure Bob will reply himself, but until he does.

What that Ubuntu Live CD allows is for the user, you, to see if it can find and explore the hard disk on the laptop. It has it's own file manager, (what windows users call Windows Explorer), and it has a knack of being able to read file names of files even though Windows is a foreign Operating System to it.

Finding the file manager in a Linux distro is a bit daunting and I can't give advice how to find it as I have only used Ubuntu a couple of times myself, but once you have found the file manager, it should be reasonably easy to navigate to the laptop's hard drive and see what files are there.

If Ubuntu can do that, then you have the option of 'copying' those files to some external source, eg a memory stick, or USB hard drive, etc.

If Ubuntu's file manager cannot find the hard drives, then it seems to me there could be two reasons.

1] The obvious, the hard drive is shot, or

2] A possibility, Ubuntu does not recognise hard disks set up in RAID. I thought Ubuntu did recognise RAID setups, but I am not 100%. Also I cannot recall ever seeing a laptop that uses Raid.

RAID is: 2 or more hard disks working together as one; eg RAID 0, 2 hdds where the data is read to each disk in turn, so each disk only has part of thedata, both both act as one disk. Another eg, RAID 1, 2 hdds where data is duplicated across both disks. This is like an instant backup where if one disk fails, the other takes over.

I would guess that if Ubuntu is loaded but its file manager does not find the hdd, then that means the hard drive has failed.

Hope that helps, and I hope I've got that accurate.

Good luck to Wales a week on Saturday. Er, I'm an England supporter myself though. Sorry,

Mark

Thank You both, I'm learning a lot here.
Mark,I reckon Italy will beat Wales on current form.
Dafydd.

But why not open them and explore?

Sorry but once in a while folk want to know the future. I can't know that but do suggest you try looking around to see if your files are there.

If the laptop HDD partitions won't mount there can be very good reasons and there are ways to get around that. I didn't discuss that because we didn't get the message this is an issue yet and it would cause many to write "forget it, it's too technical."
Bob

Thank you Edward,
I have just reached the same conclusion. Both drives are mountable and data can be salvaged. However, the restore partition is a little confusing to me as mounting it brings up a load of folders and I don't understand how to get it running.
Thanks,
Dafydd, Wales U.K.

Whist getting back files, I came across some unsavoury images and have dropped it like a hot potato.
Thanks to all,
Dafydd.