Member Avatar for mishkin513

Hi everyone, and I want to say I am happy to be here. Here is the problem I am facing. I have Sony VIAO laptop about 1.5 years old. My son was downloading and installing some video game for his psp. The game is leagal and so on. After that, about Sunday, I was trying to turn on the laptop and it wont boot. Basicaly, the logo screen goes of, than the Windows Vista running bar comes up and stays like that forever. I tried to press F10 on the boot to go to recovery center as i did earlier on my other computer, but that thing is not even loading. If I go to F8, I am getting the boot menue, saying that recent change of my hardware or software dowsn't let me boot the windows and it asks me for Vista CD, which I never got with the laptop because SONY doesn't provide cds any longer. They partition the drive and put all recovery files there, however, I can't even get to that screen. I was thinking that it might be RAM or HD failure. please help. Any help and suggestions are appreciated.

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Dani AI

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Building on ’s diagnostic direction, here are focused, practical steps that were not yet covered in the thread. The priority is to preserve data, confirm whether the problem is hardware (drive, cable, board) or software (boot record, filesystem, malware), and only then attempt repairs that write to the disk.

  1. Protect the data first
    Remove the laptop drive and attach it to another computer with a USB-to-SATA adapter or in a desktop slot. Copy irreplaceable files before doing any repairs. If the drive is flaky, make a full image (read-only if possible) and work from the image rather than the original.

  2. Check basic hardware signs and BIOS detection
    Power on and enter the firmware setup to confirm the drive is listed. Listen for unusual clicking or grinding and watch activity LEDs. If the drive is not detected, reseat connectors and test again; persistent non-detection usually means a hardware failure.

  3. Run a manufacturer disk health test (SMART/full test)
    Use the HDD maker’s diagnostic tool to run a full surface/SMART test. That will help distinguish an electronic/mechanical failure from a corrupt filesystem or boot record.

  4. If the drive is detected but Windows won’t start
    Work from a recovery environment (a Windows recovery/rebuild environment or a trusted rescue utility). Before any write repairs, image the disk. Repair commands commonly used from Windows Recovery are:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd
chkdsk c: /f /r

Run those only after imaging, because writes can make later recovery harder.

  1. If a boot-sector infection is suspected
    Scan the offline image or the attached drive with a reputable rescue scanner (bootable rescue media from major AV vendors). Disinfect only after imaging. If infection has damaged system files or the recovery partition, a clean OS reinstall onto a healthy drive is often faster and safer.

Final notes and cautions
Do not perform low-level repairs until data is backed up. If SMART or mechanical tests show failure, replace the drive and restore from backups or professional recovery. If uncertain, seek a data-recovery specialist rather than risking further damage.

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Member Avatar for Xlphos

Hello,

You should try a Linux live CD to see if the hard drive is OK, you can also do a memtest (RAM test) from most live CDs.

You maybe able to get Sony to send some new restore CD/DVDs but you may have to pay for them.

Do you know anyone who has installation CD/DVDs that are the same operating system version you are using; you could use these to repair the installation.

I don't think it is a RAM problem, more likely a HDD problem.

- Let us know how it goes.

Member Avatar for mishkin513

thanks for ur reply, i also think its a HD and to be more exact, I think it might be a boot virus. In that case I would need to get it off somehow.

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