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  #1  
Old August 12th, 2015, 01:26 AM
CyberTrek CyberTrek is offline
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Fresh Install of W10 Fails

Got a Sony Viao with W7 Home on it. I have tried to do a clean install of W10. First I upgraded the OS, which went okay, so it can be activated.

I downloaded this tool http://www.intowindows.com/download-...rom-microsoft/ and downloaded the W10 ISO. Burned the ISO. Changed BIOS to boot from USB. I get to do these options like this guy on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQq-iGL_3P8 does but when it gets to formatting, mine will not go further.

After the format, clicking next gives me the error:
Error: "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information, see the Setup log files."

I tried deleting it and making it new, but still no go. I fiddled a bit but got no results. I was able to get into the recovery partition to reload 7. So, I tried again but no go. Then I tried:
Start DISKPART.
Type LIST DISK and identify your SSD disk number (from 0 to n disks).
Type SELECT DISK <n> where <n> is your SSD disk number.
Type CLEAN
Type CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
Type ACTIVE
Type FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
Type ASSIGN
Type EXIT twice (one to get out of DiskPart, the other to exit the command line tool)

Still, same error on the drive.

Twice in the past couple of months "fsck/r/f" have been run. It re-loads 7 fine, but wiping out the drive has this setback.

Any thoughts for clean install? I never liked one OS over another, and never since so since W95.

BIOS has nothing about UEFI or EFI, etc.

Thank you.
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  #2  
Old August 12th, 2015, 02:34 PM
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jtdoom jtdoom is offline
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Hi,
you said: "First I upgraded the OS, which went okay, so it can be activated"

I hope you really upgraded from win7 to windows 10 and that al ran fine and showed an activated state of windows 10.

I really mean, after upgrade, It ran win 10 and it showed activated.
(NOT: it said it was ready, etc, and you could if you wanted.. and shedule it.)
Because if you didn't really fully upgrade, there is no way you would get windows 10 activated without buying a key.
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  #3  
Old August 12th, 2015, 02:43 PM
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jtdoom jtdoom is offline
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Do you know if windows 10 "clean" setup is able to get to internet driver update servers? You may have to use wired access instead of wireless, and setup still has to be able to use the NIC.

You see, I think this is the old hit F6 to load hard disk controller driver at work( in old days, insert floppy or slipstream the controller into setup), and that without enhanced mode controller windows 10 will not see the drive(s).

Vaio may have a driver for windows 10 to be placed on USB stick?
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  #4  
Old August 12th, 2015, 11:36 PM
CyberTrek CyberTrek is offline
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Yes, it was activated after 2-3 days of the laptop sitting on the floor. I only started wiping it after that. I just can not get it to loaded on the drive once formatted.
I am unaware if it needs the Internet to do any of this, including seeing a partition.
I will try F6. As far as drivers, with all my searching I not seen anything about one (but each day does bring new results when searching).
I let you know.
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  #5  
Old August 13th, 2015, 02:31 AM
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jtdoom jtdoom is offline
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Hi,

it"s been too long ago I had a Vaio to look at, and there are so many different vaio models anyway... But, let's not have that stop me from giving you some of my thoughts.

That laptop may have some hard disk protection enabled in its BIOS (so as not to be able to unwittingly remove the hidden recovery partition, etc.)

The partition table in windows 7, apart from that drive having the hidden recovery partition, would be different than what windows 8.1 or windows 10 would show.
One would have a hidden partition with size of a "few" GIGA for the windows installation file (WIM) and application setup files in its compressed form.
Then, one would see system boot partition of 100 MEGA (for win7) or 350 MEGA for win 8.1), and then there would be your C: drive (usually the rest of the hard drive)

I done my upgrades to win 10 from 8.1, so I don't see differences in the 350 meg, but upgrading from win 7, I suspect there are some possibilities for how thing were done.
The 100 meg bootloader partition may have been resized during upgrade (or there may have been another method like creating a 350 alongside and inactivating/disabling the win7 bootloader... I dunno how a drive looks like after upgrade from 7 to 10, see.

But, since they use different size bootloader partitions in 7 and 8.1 (100 vs 350) , something was done.

A clean setup would expect no drive access protection, and custom setup/custom drive partitioning from within setup would enable you to wipe the old bootloader partition (insufficient size for 10 bootloader) after you deleted the C: or windows partition.


Setup should ask you if you have drivers, and will surely ask you to look for updates prior to setup (unless you skip this, it will look for updates if it can get online)

To find updates and drivers, it has to be able to get online (with a non-working Network interface, that would find you none. If you had a wireless connection, it might help if you temporarily disable password protected login on the WIFI / router... Heck, your router may have security settings for computers connected to it by cat5 wires. Most households don't have that kind of router security setup, but some people do use the extra security settings a router offers. -I do, for instance.-
8-)

So, you may have to find the windows 8 drivers for your vaio model, particularly hard disk controller and network (all else can come later. but controller for HDD is needed or you cannot get anything on the hard drive, NIC is very useful, and chipset is a must-have (you might think chipset has the HDD controller, but chipset is needed for enhanced performance of system buses, not for basic access.)

Nvidia or ATI mobility for graphics are handy to have a download of.

also, I doubt F6 still triggers I have a driver for you, but it might.
(PLEASE let me know if that triggered a question 'please insert media' (it asked for floppy with extracted drivers on it, in old times.)

Oh, unzip drivers you found before you put them on USB or rewritable CDRW
(Setup may not be able to read from USB, it might be able to read from CDRW... This Might work for you.)

so, in a nutshell.
Is drive access protected by Viao BIOS?
Can setup get to the driver it needs to access your hard disk?

Can you afford to wipe the recovery partition? (this might be left on, but the 100 meg win 7 bootloader partition should not stay, and that can only be removed if the windows partition also gets deleted.)

I am sorry for being vague. As I said, I do not have a Vaio to experiment on.
(the upgrade to 10 from 7 that is planned in a very near future is a laptop that should not be wiped, so I won't do drastic experiments on that either.)
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  #6  
Old August 13th, 2015, 02:40 AM
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jtdoom jtdoom is offline
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a quick note
for setup and working on visitor's machines (to repair/build PC) I use a non-hardened (no PW) router behind a router that is set to trust that particular router.
(My "hardened" sitecom will trigger a PW question if I plug an unknown machine into it and it tries to go online.)

hmmm, win 10 uses 500 MEGA for bootloader partition. I'll look at one of the machines I upgraded from 8.1 to 10 and examine the partition table/hidden partitions
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  #7  
Old August 14th, 2015, 10:09 PM
CyberTrek CyberTrek is offline
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There is nothing in BIOS doing anything to the hard drive but its boot order. Have found that after doing the procedure above, the recovery partitions are gone. So therefore, no more reloading W7 again. All I can do now is find a way to boot install W10. I tried the default hard drive drivers but no go. I read some articles that Sony's hard drives can not handle W10?? Trying to figure what to do with an empty laptop now.
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  #8  
Old August 15th, 2015, 05:30 PM
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jtdoom jtdoom is offline
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Hi,

you may be able to change from UEFI to "legacy or standard" BIOS mode, which could make your hard disk accessible for setup.

For instance, a HP laptop had a defective hard disk, out of warranty, so no recovery etc... (the symptom being that recovery failed, the hard disk was eventually found defective, so it got replaced. )
After replacing it, I had to get the machine into standard BIOS mode instead of UEFI, and I installed a windows 7 that had no OEMBIOS restrictions. (I did not enter the key until I knew it ran fine, and the owner wanted win 8.1, so I used a DVD with the EI.cfg file present so I could test if it would install... which it did after blanking the drive again.

Anyhow.
I wondered if you ever made a system rescue disc, and system image/backup of that VAIO.

I would imagine VAIO would offer to burn "recovery media".
Somebody with the same model machine might burn a set, and you would be able to use it because the licence key is embedded in the UEFI bios.

Doing this on a new hard disk (factory restore from recovery DVD created from OEM recovery tools) will create a hard disk with hidden recovery partition und so weiter.
(Just like new, because after that, it would prompt you to burn recovery media...)

I've burnt recovery sets for Acer, HP, medion, amilo, etc, because I know these often don't get made by the owner, and every once in a while the extra copies I make for my toolbox come in handy.

You may find a friend who has a model like yours and have them make two sets.

You see, if you use a non restricted windows you have to use up a licence.
Which costs money.

(But if you recorded the original key, or have the one on a sticker -if it has sticker- you should be able to use activation by phone.)
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  #9  
Old August 28th, 2015, 10:23 PM
CyberTrek CyberTrek is offline
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There is nothing in BIOS for legacy or standard.

I could not have made a backup because the CD drive not work.

I have the original key and I am trying to get a hold of the company, but this laptop is originally from overseas so I do not know how I can get a restore disc for this unit yet.

Sony is working on 8.x hard drive drivers for their devices, but no work on W7 units.

I got no partitions in this unit because that program wiped them all. Only thin I have is USB access, or something via Ethernet.
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  #10  
Old August 30th, 2015, 11:04 PM
CyberTrek CyberTrek is offline
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I have tried the Ultimate Boot CD, via USB, and it can not even detect the hard drive in there to re-partition.
I connected an external CD drive to try and load XP Pro SP3 slipstream CD I made ages ago. It started to load and sees a hard drive of 350G, but then crashes with BSOD.
At the moment, I got a nonworking laptop!
I keep trying to find a way to get some sort of Windows on it. All I have are my floppies of 3.1 and 95. XP Pro CD, Vista Upgrade, and the W10 Home files after the laptop was registered with it on install.
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  #11  
Old August 31st, 2015, 10:24 PM
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jtdoom jtdoom is offline
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hmmm,
I looked up something, and it sure looks like it that at the moment, you're truly scruwwed.
Sony Vaio series with windows 7, models later than year 2011, were supposed to get tested by Sony to check for upgrade issues.

You say so yourself, actually, but you may not have know all that before you wiped the drive.

Even windows 8 and 8.1 users were asked to wait until october and november.
http://esupport.sony.com/LA/p/os10up...?template_id=1

http://esupport.sony.com/LA/p/suppor...l?info_id=1596

And to make matters worse, you could not burn the recovery DVD set because your DVD-drive is kaput.

The windows 10 download tool also offers "make a a bootable USB" option, which looks like your last shot?

(edit; that is not on a DVD in a USB DVDwriter, but a bootable thumbdrive/aka/memory stick)

Last edited by jtdoom; August 31st, 2015 at 10:27 PM. Reason: usb
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  #12  
Old September 3rd, 2015, 04:31 PM
CyberTrek CyberTrek is offline
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Yes, I found all those "Sony said not to upgrade" a day later.

I will take another look at that download tool. I mean when I made it on my USB, it was able to boot off it just not use the hard drive.

I just can not figure why nothing sees the hard drive. Wonder if I need to make a bootable FDISK.
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  #13  
Old September 3rd, 2015, 11:25 PM
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jtdoom jtdoom is offline
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Hi,
you may still try to find another owner of a similar series or exact same model vaio in your neighbourhood, "sector 001, Earth, USA..." and ask that fellow tellurian to burn an extra set of recovery discs for you.
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  #14  
Old September 3rd, 2015, 11:36 PM
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jtdoom jtdoom is offline
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dunno if this will work for you, but it's worth a look anyhow...

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...nload/windows7
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  #15  
Old September 3rd, 2015, 11:58 PM
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jtdoom jtdoom is offline
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If MSFT won't let you, these googledrive mirrors are apparently active (I pasted the googledrive adress into a browser, and the link I pasted started the download popup question for windows 7, sp1, 64bit home premium, and when I told it to download it began downloading... )

the links to digitalriver ISO downloads were inactivated by MSFT, but these googledrive copies could help you.
http://hasibul.info/blog/2015/04/12/...7-iso-updated/

This will only work if you recorded the windows 7 key (or have the sticker with the key)

Vaio esupport can provide the drivers.
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/sel...ODTYPE=1,24,72

One more thought I had was that the broken internal DVD-drive could trigger errors during setup.
You may want to pull it out.
This is usually possible by removing just one screw and a sliding a locking slider somewhere in that vaio, but you may have to look "under the hood" (remove more screws) to see which hook or screw secures the internal DVD to chassis.

Get the Vaio esupport chipset drivers, these should have the hard disk controller in them. Get the others too, just in case.
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