Re: HDD failure of notebook

Hi Drdds,

I am sorry to hear about the problem you are facing right now.

I would like to explain the Symptom, Causes, and Fixes of the issue faced by you.

So, let’s begin with the Symptom.

Symptom:

When a system is booting, a BIOS system of your system tries to find an Operating System on a hard drive to boot from. If, it is unable to find it so, then ‘Operating System Not Found’ error occurs. There are various reason of its causes such as an error in BIOS configuration, a damaged Master Boot Record or a faulty hard drive.

One of the possible error messages is ‘Missing Operating System’, which is very common on Sony VAIO Laptops.

Causes:

This error may occur due to some of the following causes:

Cause 1: Bad BIOS configuration

There are various reasons of the incorrection of the BIOS configurations, such as power outages, hardware errors or errors made when configuring the BIOS manually. Since, this error occurs when the BIOS is unable to detect an OS, it should always be recommended first to check the BIOS settings.

Cause 2: Faulty data cables

If the BIOS is unable to detect the hard drive, it is the foremost decision to swap the data cables or completely removed them off and launched a hard disk connected to a new set of cables. This will become a perfect solution for this error.

Cause 3: BCD is damaged

This error may also occur if the BCD is damaged.

Fixes:

Reset the BIOS settings on your Sony Laptop

If you faced this error, then it is recommended by the eSupport section of Sony.com that you can perform the following options:

1. Remove all removable media, e.g. USB flash drives, CDs, DVDs, etc.
2. Reset BIOS settings back to default

How you’ll get reset your VAIO’s BIOS settings (For Windows XP, Vista, 8 or 8.1):

1. Remove all the peripheral devices connected to your system.
2. Restart your system and press F2 key when logo of VAIO appears
3. When you got the BIOS setup screen, then press (->) arrow key to select the EXIT menu section
4. You have to select ‘Get Default Values’ by pressing the down arrow key
5. Now, press Enter at “Load Optimized Defaults”
6. When you entered into the “Load Optimized Defaults”, then make use of the arrow key to select YES and then press Enter.
7. Now, save the configuration settings by using the arrow keys and press Enter.

I hope this will help you out in resolving your issue.