Member Avatar for sick.graphics

Hi,
i have a sony vaio pcg-7m1m with it's dvd-rom broken
now i need to reinstall my OS (i made a bootable USB) and i can't find in the BIOS an option for it to boot from a flash drive

does anyone know if this model is capable of booting from a flash drive? do i have to install something?

Replies are greatly appreciated!
kind regards.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

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Quick tip before you hunt through BIOS: PCG-7M1M is a chassis code, not the real VAIO model. The actual model (usually VGN-… on this era) is printed on the screen bezel or shown in BIOS; use that to look up the right manual and supported boot devices. Sony documents also note the PCG code is not used for support. (sony-asia.com)

is on the right track about a one‑time boot menu. On many VAIOs, F2 opens BIOS and F11 brings up the boot menu; try F11 with the USB already inserted. Some Sony guides from the period even list only optical or USB floppy as external bootable devices, which is a clue that certain models will not boot from USB flash at all. In Phoenix BIOS, you may also need to enable External Device/Drive Boot; on some VAIOs that setting was designed for external optical drives (often via i.LINK/IEEE‑1394) rather than USB sticks, which lines up with ’s comment about older machines. (helpguide.sony.net)

If your specific model truly lacks USB‑flash boot, these workarounds usually solve it without swapping hardware:

  • Use Plop Boot Manager to add USB boot even when the BIOS does not support it. You can launch Plop from the Windows boot menu (plpbt4win/BCD) or from a tiny CD/floppy made on another PC, then choose USB in Plop’s menu. (plop.at)
  • Boot from an external optical drive. Enable External Drive Boot in BIOS if your unit supports that path. (sony.com)
  • If available in your BIOS, PXE/network boot an installer over LAN. (support.us.vaio.com)

Practical gotchas: build the installer USB for legacy BIOS/MBR (not UEFI‑only) and keep it FAT32; older VAIOs can be picky and will simply skip a stick they cannot boot. If all else fails, ’s solution of using an external or borrowed optical drive is the most hassle‑free on this generation.

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Member Avatar for aVar++

Instead of going into set up look for a boot menu key, this is what you want. If your computer doesnt have an OS it will boot from the Flash Drive automatically. However if you cant access the boot menu, in settings you will find something along the lines of 'boot priority' and set the USB as the first priority on boot, if that doesnt work you can even make it so it doesnt recognise the HDD with the OS on. Then it will boot from the USB s default.

Member Avatar for caperjack

its a older laptop and likely will not have the option to boot from usb flask drive

Member Avatar for sick.graphics

thank you very much for your replies!
in the end, i borrowed a dvd-rom drive from a friend.

Member Avatar for caperjack

glad you got it fixed ,happy computing

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