topic Re: Alternative Boot Options? in PCs & Accessories

Alternative Boot Options?

ChrisOfTheOT — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 16:56:11 GMT

My wife, Anna & I have just bought a very pleasing new Dell laptop, which means her old R600 will be up for sale shortly. I removed the 60GB hard drive from the R600 because the Dell only had a 20GB as standard and put the Dell 20GB into the Sony.

So now the Sony R600 boots with the Dell WinXP Pro install - though I obviously can't activate it with Microsoft because the Dell is now running that issue of WinXP Pro.

Still with me?

But! I can do nothing with the Sony R600 because the only options I get after booting are 'Activate' or 'Shut Down'. (Since the Vaio BIOS will not allow booting via USB, I can't do a straight forward System Restore either.)

So - I'm stuck... :smileythinking: Unless someone can offer help here? I need to do a Full System Restore but I can't think of a way to do it 'cos we only have USB CD & PCMCIA hard drives available. (I really don't want to have to be removing hard drives again, the pins on one are already a little 'dishevelled'...)

Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers,

Chris

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

Mandy — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:31:22 GMT

Excuse my ignorance, but how are you meant to reinstall from the r600 recovery cd(s)?

My GRX boots quite happily from a SONY USB floppy drive despite the lack of USB option in the Bios.

EDIT: Does this help:

http://www.vaio-link.com/tutorials/recovery/recovery.asp?l=en&m=669

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

ChrisOfTheOT — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:45:48 GMT

Thanks for the reply Mandy - and the link.

To use the Recovery CDs 'properly' (or, as Sony would want), I think Sony require the purchase of a docking station. The model your link shows is a model that came with a docking unit as standard but Anna's (the R600MX) came with nowt'.

When the hard drive was changed last time, I got our local computer shop to do it because they were able to clone the drive contents too. This time, I was hoping to do it for free!

Still, since you mention that your GRX boots from a USB floppy, I'm gonna try that & let you know.

Cheers, Mandy.

Chris

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

Mandy — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:48:30 GMT

It has to be the approved accessory SONY floppy drive!

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

kee-lo_ — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 18:46:15 GMT

Wow thats not good of Sony.
Can you not boot with the CD?
This is a joke

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

ChrisOfTheOT — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 18:51:06 GMT

Well I tried it, Mandy and, as you said, it needs to be a 'pukka' Sony FDD.

(But I found an interesting (old) thread about Sony drives and YE - the company that make/made them for Sony:

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?hl=en&lr=lang_en&c2coff=1&safe=off&threadm=92d41o%243le%241%40lyonesse.netcom.net.uk&rnum=3&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dboot%2Bfrom%2Busb%26hl%3Den%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch

Nice long link there :smileygrin: )

I wondered about Firewire (is Firewire useless?) 'cos I've got a Firewire-USB conversion lead but I can't imagine that will work. Then I thought about Norton Ghost. Now there's got to be a way to enable a System Restore with that...

I'll think about it and let you know.

Cheers,

Chris

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

Mandy — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 19:12:25 GMT

Kee-Lo,

It would seem that the model that Chris has does not come with the docking station / CD Drive.

It was "optional" on that model so the recovery CD's are useless without it.

Only alternative would seem to be boot from floppy (Win 98 boot disk?)and enable the third party CD drive.

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

kee-lo_ — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 19:15:43 GMT

How about booting from memory stick?

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

Mandy — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 19:40:50 GMT

Can?you do that?

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

kee-lo_ — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 20:04:52 GMT

Not 100% sure, but it's worth a try.

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

ChrisOfTheOT — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 07:08:35 GMT

Unfortunately I don't have a memory stick, and I don't know anyone I might borrow from. Poop. I did try a Win 98 startup disc but the same USB problem remains - the computer can't 'see' any USB device until Windows is running...

This is the same with Norton Ghost. I can copy the old 'C' to anything but still that anything is invisible to the R600.

Could I halt the boot sequence by disabling the hard drive from booting and then get to a command prompt? Would I be able to access the CAB files (can a DOS screen read CABs?) in the Windows directories and pull out... and install... a USB driver. ... Or something else...

Look, it's not even 8 a.m. on Saturday morning and I'm still struggling with this. How sad am I? (I even thought about a Network boot last night, using out ADSL router but I've never done that before... plus I don't know how to access the router from a computer with no OS.)

If you can think of anything else Mandy or Kee-Lo, I'm all ears - as it were.

Cheers,

Chris

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

willuk — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 09:06:11 GMT

This may sound silly as its going against what you wanted to do, but...

could you not remove the 20gig drive put it back in the dell (which I assume has a bootable cd drive or as such), then format the hard drive. put a dos version on it with a bootable cd driver. then remove the drive put it back in the sony, boot up and install windows that way.

I know its a lot of hassle but sometimes the long way around is quicker than finding a alternative route.

ie off topic but never the less .. i'm backing up and reformating my pc to reinstall windows because xp cannot restore properly to fix the ide controllers to loads the cd drives in windows. too much hassle to fix so may as well just start a fresh.

I expect you have already thought of this and disregarded it. I know that you can boot off a network but i have no idea how as i have only done it on sun machines, they generally need a boot floppy so i'm not sure if that applies to a pc/laptop as well.

Will.

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

ChrisOfTheOT — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 12:14:27 GMT

I know its a lot of hassle but sometimes the long way around is quicker than finding a alternative route.

I think you're quite right there, Will. I thought and struggled and said rude words but nothing has helped. I'm just going to have to bite the bullet.

After lunch I'm going to remove the hard drive - again! - and copy a Windows 98 startup disc onto it. I am, perhaps naively, assuming that a Win 98 startup disc will enable USB booting. (Ooo, I'm gonna be so mad if it don't )

Cheers anyway, Will. I'll post with the results later but if it really dosen't work I can't be held responsable for the contents.:smileywink:

Chris

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

Mandy — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 12:23:06 GMT

The original version of Win98 did not support USB, the later updated version did.

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

ChrisOfTheOT — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 13:44:56 GMT

With a Win98 startup disc transfered to the hard drive, I now get 'NTLDR not present'.

What the hell is NT LoaDeR (?), and why isn't it present?

Bugger it all!

Chris

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

kee-lo_ — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 14:03:48 GMT

Chris

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

ChrisOfTheOT — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 16:14:44 GMT

Well first, Kee-Lo, thanks for the link. Between it and the MS Knowledge Base I now know a little about NTLDR, and your link showed me how to find it.

But now I get a constant re-booting. The Sony logo appears, then disappears as if it's going to boot but then everything shuts down and starts again - continually.

How fed-up am I?

The only thing left now is Will's idea of booting directly from the Dell, even though I'm loathed to do it because I've removed the damn hard drive(s) so many times already...

Still, I don't fink I've got much choice.

Cheers, Kee-Lo (& Will & Mandy),

Chris

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

kee-lo_ — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 18:43:52 GMT

Yeah Will's suggestion looks like a good thing at the moment.

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

ChrisOfTheOT — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:02:02 GMT

What a miserable computing weekend I've had. Failure at all points!

I booted the hard drive in the Dell, installing XP Pro and tired to perform a System Restore from the Sony discs. It wouldn't let me("... not for this system..."). So I thought I'd just run XP Pro in the Sony since I would have the thirty day period before I was shut-out anyway.

But XP wouldn't load on the Sony, giving me an installation error.

I thought about my Firewire-USB lead - and after seeing that there is a Firewire option in the BIOS for booting - was most excited! But it's not a damn Firewire lead, it's a USB-miniUSB lead.

By now I am losing the will to live.

To cap it all, we forgot to put our clocks back so I get out of bed an hour too early then, thinking positively that it'll give me an extra hour to sort out the R600, I decide to skip church (again) and slog my (mental) guts out. So I start at about half-eight, finish about half-one this afternoon, and find myself exactly where I was yesterday at the same time. (Except the 20GB hard drive I thought I had turns out to be a 15GB!)

Unbelievable.

I even spent ages at Bootdisk.com (not Bootdisc - I wonder which is correct?) and everything I downloaded required installing to floppy. Damnit! How can I boot from a floppy when it's USB?

I have now given up. I shall try to purchase a USB-Firewire lead locally, or failing that I'll have to order one from CPC... All this just so I can sell an old(ish) computer. (I would have faired better with the lions...)

Perhaps I should have gone to church afterall.

Cheers (but not in any cheerful sense!)

Chris

Re: Alternative Boot Options?

kee-lo_ — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 17:44:52 GMT

Sounds like a sh**ty Sunday to me Chris - the main big problem is this Windows XP which is made for each PC....

Is there no way you can use one of the Boot CDs on bootdisk.com?