Hello all, newbee here.
I have a 6 year old Sony Vaio model VGN-FS640/W
The cd/dvd device failed a year before the hard drive. I replaced the hard drive with a 320gig hard drive after the 80gig failed.
We tried but the recovery discs had to be played in the cd drive, tried loading on a stick for the usb but no go.
I installed a new cd/dvd drive and the recovery discs will now load.
I get a message now that it cannot determine partition settings.
I even reinstalled the original hard drive but the laptop says no hard drive detected.
I have a new laptop but the old Sony and I got along well and I miss it.
I am going to try and load a disc of Ubuntu after it is burned. If that is the only OS I can install it is ok.
Hello all, newbee here.
I have a 6 year old Sony Vaio model VGN-FS640/W
The cd/dvd device failed a year before the hard drive. I replaced the hard drive with a 320gig hard drive after the 80gig failed.
We tried but the recovery discs had to be played in the cd drive, tried loading on a stick for the usb but no go.
I installed a new cd/dvd drive and the recovery discs will now load.
I get a message now that it cannot determine partition settings.
I even reinstalled the original hard drive but the laptop says no hard drive detected.
I have a new laptop but the old Sony and I got along well and I miss it.
I am going to try and load a disc of Ubuntu after it is burned. If that is the only OS I can install it is ok.
Hiya Ferretkona,
Sorry to hear your having problems with the machine. I have posted a query on this topic to get some answers for you and hope we can come up with a solution for your problems. I or another tech may be alone to help you and get you in the right direction.
First off, thank you all for the help
I used the Ubuntu as the sample not install. Apparnently even Linux needs a partition as well to install. But I was able to verify the cd/dvd drive now works and the hard disc is functioning.
I did some googleing and it appears I need to format and create the partitions. I guess use a FAT 32
I am looking for the original dvd's I burned as the restore 5 years ago. I understand with those discs it will do the formatting and partitioning for me.
i think you may be out of luck using the recovery discs on the new hard drive, i'm guessing they need the hidden partition on the old 80GB drive to work and seeing how that's failed there's no way to get the info needed off it and onto your new hard drive.
as for your new hard drive, i think you won't have any problems installing any os you like on it just as long as you have an install disc, so think when you come to install ubuntu onto it to test you shouldn't have a problem.
sorry couldn't be more help in getting your old os installed on the new hard drive with the recovery discs you have.
I did some googleing and it appears I need to format and create the partitions. I guess use a FAT 32
for a linux install i'd use ext4 and for a windows install i'd use ntfs, the only time i use fat 32 is when i'm formatting a removable usb/pen/flash drive.
when you use an install os disc if the hard drive is unpartitioned it will/should offer to create the partitions needed, if it's already partitioned it will ask if this is the partition you want to install to.
when installing a linux os on an empty drive i'd suggest just using the default partitions/settings it offers.
Have you formated your new HDD?
Cheers,
Lee