# Sony Vaio 'operating system not found'



## Timmyrogero (Sep 17, 2010)

Hi, I'm trying to fix a friends sony vaio VGN-NW26M. When it boots up it goes from the vaio splash screen to 'operating system not found' We have no recovery discs! When i put in a windows 7 DVD to try and re-install/repair it, it cannot find the hard drive to install on. So i tried to load a driver for what i assume to be a SATA HDD. I have tried all the drivers that i could find on the sony website that are associated with this laptop and none seem to do the trick. Still it does not see the HDD. It could be that the HDD is corrupt or broken. Though when i enter the bios screen at start up it does show that it is there. Is there any way of checking the HDD? If anyone has any idea about this and could help it would be very much appreciated. I'm not a total novice with computers but i'm pretty rusty, and used to older stuff! Many thanks


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

On some laptops the hard drive is easily accessible--maybe one or two screws to loosen. Check to see if the hard drive has a loose connection. Your friend may have a manual or Sony may have information on their web site showing the location of the drive.

Check in the BIOS (although many of them these days are useless) to see if the hard drive is detected and if there is a diagnostic utility.


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## Timmyrogero (Sep 17, 2010)

Hi, thanks for reply, the HDD does show up in the bios but there is no diagnostic tools there and it only says the name. Is there any 'bootable from CD' HDD checker that anyone has heard of?


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Often the hard drive manufacturer has diagnostic tools. GParted includes a disk check.


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