"error loading operating system"

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dojugoo

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Jun 7, 2007
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So, my friend's laptop (Sony Vaio VGN-FWsomething), running on Windows 7 Pro 64-bit recently just started to give this error during bootup. The computer started to behave sluggish during internet surfing, and after a restart, this error popped up.

Now, I can get into BIOS just fine, and hard drive is detected, and everything looks fine. I tried putting in the Windows 7 cd, but it hangs for about 10 minutes at the windows 7 loading screen, and then hangs indefinitely (its been about 5 hours so far) on a blank black screen with a moveable mouse pointer. I cannot get into the recovery console or anything.

Googling doesn't give me solutions for this, and wondering if anybody got a fix to this? Since the installation cd can't even get anything to load, it seems like its impossible to reformat the drive? If anybody has any ideas, I want to try not reformatting since there's probably some important files on there to backup first.

Thanks
 
Maybe, but I dont wanna give up hope yet... :)

So, I took out the hard drive and connected it to my PC. My computer detects the hard drive, but its now a RAW file type and I cannot access any of the contents, and it tells me to format the drive. I ran chkdsk on it, but didn't work as it reports that the drive is RAW.

I want to try a hard drive recovery program, and wondering if anybody recommends a good one for this?

Last resort is to format the drive, but there's important information I would see if I could salvage first.
 
Before attempting any recovery operation of any kind, you should get the manufacturer's diagnostic for that brand of hard drive and run it, the short/quick tests and the advanced/long/thorough one as well (all the tests it's capable of running) from start to finish and then see if the drive is actually defective or soon might be. S.M.A.R.T. status is not a reliable enough indicator of drive health - the only true indicator of that is running that diagnostic made by the maker of the drive and getting the results.

If you happen to have a drive that the manufacturer is too cheap to provide such a diagnostic tool (there are 2 or 3 makers that don't) you can use the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test as it's coded to work with any hard drive regardless of manufacturer. Run the tests, all of them (it'll take time but again it's the only sure way to know the status of the drive) and then proceed from there.
 
I have a toshiba drive and read there wasn't any diagnostic tool for that, so I ran the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test. It detected it at first, but after trying to run the test, it said "Device not found." I rescanned the bus and the drive didn't appear on the list anymore.
 
Doesn't sound good if the device is dropping off the bus like that - controller going south. Is the drive out of warranty? Could always try the "oven" method (read LAST resort) to see if there's perhaps a bad solder point or two on the controller (i.e. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1421792) if nothing else pans out. If the drive is in warranty, could have them send an advanced replacement and try swapping controllers out to see if it rectifies the issue.
 
quick and easy test....take HDD out and put it in an external enclosure and or PS3 if either device can use it then the controller on the MB has croaked. I have an old Acer 5570Z1 that did the exact same thing and it was a dead mainboard controller. (currently waiting on a new MB)
 
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