Help! I screwed up my wife's laptop!

[GoStumpy]

Problem was the computer was running super slow, taking FOREVER to boot up, etc.... needed a clean wipe and reinstall of OS and it would be back to its normal self...

It's a Sony VAIO, and I've done it before, using the VAIO System Restore to restore it to when it was new.
I backed everything up to an external HDD, and went into the F10 on bootup

Selected all the right things, but something went wrong!!

It formatted the HDD, then gave "Error 320" and then "Error 330".

So now I have a laptop with no operating system

I have 4 different Windows Vista Home Premium that work on other computers, but they will not boot up in this Laptop. Upon google searching it appears like I am not the only one that has this problem.

What can I do??? I don't want to be the ahole that screwed up her computer..

Of course she was complaining about it before, agreed that it needed to be formatted, but now that it doesn't work she's mad that I screwed up her computer!! grrr.



It's a Sony VAIO VGN-NR498D running Windows Vista Home Premium. There is a CD Key on the bottom of the laptop.

Please help!!!!

 

[nsafreak]

Sounds like the hard drive may have bit the dust. Error 330 & Error 320 on Sony's website both read:

A hardware problem has occurred or the surface of the Recovery Media is dirty.

Sounds like it was on its way out with the slow booting and by coincidence it decided to give up the ghost when you reformatted.

 

[C1]

"WIPE" the laptop HDD then try recovering or reinstalling the OS.

Before recovery, you could run the free SeaTools from CD to check the HDD.

If there still are issues, best bet is just to replace the HDD with something like a WD Blue or a Black.

 

[GoStumpy]

I replaced the HDD in 2012 with a WD Blue 1TB drive... it wasn't making any noise leading up to this..

I can boot from a Windows 7 DVD, currently installing it to see if that part works...

When installing Win7 there is a 36gb Partition that is allocated "OEM".

 

[GoStumpy]

Confirmed it's not hardware related, Windows 7 installed with only a few hiccups (had to eject the DVD a few times because it seemed stuck on a loop?)

Anyway, Windows 7 is loaded and working, but I would rather not buy a copy of Win7 when Vista was working just fine?

I guess my main question is how do I install Vista without a CD? Anything I find on google is out of date

 

[VirtualLarry]

Problem was the computer was running super slow, taking FOREVER to boot up, etc.

Sounds like the hard drive may have bit the dust. Error 330 & Error 320 on Sony's website both read:
Sounds like it was on its way out with the slow booting and by coincidence it decided to give up the ghost when you reformatted.

Those things are consistent. "Slow boot" may be because HDD was on the way out already. Attempting to write to it heavily (re-format) may have pushed it over the edge.

Think of it this way, it's time to upgrade her laptop to an SSD!

 

[Steltek]

If you have four different Vista discs that won't boot on the system, it sounds like you still have a hardware problem. Can you convert one of the Vista discs to a bootable USB flash drive and try to install that way? You may have to do a phone activation for the license, though.

 

[GoStumpy]

Sorry I should have been more specific, I have four different burned discs from many years ago, no actual Microsoft discs. Windows 7 seems to work perfectly so I doubt it's the HDD.

 

[LTC8K6]

Maybe clone the drive to a new drive and then recover from the OEM partition?

 

[Puffnstuff]

I would run a disc diagnostic to be sure that the hd is okay before investing a lot of time going any further. If it passes then try burning another copy of vista with a different pc as not all discs are readable by all drives. If you have to replace the drive ssd's are really cheap right now.

 

[Gunbuster]

If you cared about your wife you would have bought a SSD to put in there. Especially after it's had multiple reloads...

 

[John Connor]

If 7 is on there install HDtune and read the SMART data and do a system scan to see if the HDD is a goner.

 

[GoStumpy]

Thanks!

LOL @ SSD, I definitely would but the thing is she is a hoarder... downloading audiobooks and such she has over 600gb on this thing.. so I'd have to get her a 1TB SSD, which is not in the budget at all... really nothing is in the budget, unfortunately. Which is why I want to get Vista to work, I don't want to spring ~$125 or more for a new OS!

Will triple check tonight and make sure the HDD is good!

 

[Ketchup]

Sounds like the hard drive may have bit the dust. Error 330 & Error 320 on Sony's website both read:



Sounds like it was on its way out with the slow booting and by coincidence it decided to give up the ghost when you reformatted.

See, I am reading this differently. He said that these are Vista disks from several years ago, and the error points to the recovery media. It is possible that these old DVDs have obtained too many scratches over the years, and/or the DVD player used in this computer is a bit over-sensitive to such things.

Having said that, calling Vista slow is nothing new. With SP2 and the latest updates, it is still incredibly slow compared to Windows 7.

If I were you GoStumpy, I would take this opportunity to see if Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or even Windows 10 will run on the computer. You already know the answer for the first one, and the other two are easily downloadable from MS for evaluation. There is, of course, a chance that the hardware does not support the latest OS, but now is a great time to find out. And with the extended support for Windows Vista approaching in just over a year, you will want to have a plan for the future anyway.

 

[GoStumpy]

Now she has Win7 on there and it's working great, she set up her iTunes and told me if I messed with it again she'll be mighty pissed...

So now all I want to do is buy a CD key for Win 7 Home Premium and register it... is that even possible now?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Now she has Win7 on there and it's working great, she set up her iTunes and told me if I messed with it again she'll be mighty pissed...

So now all I want to do is buy a CD key for Win 7 Home Premium and register it... is that even possible now?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416804

 

[GoStumpy]

I am forever grateful to a very generous person.

I now have an activated copy

So very thankful

 

[jhansman]

If you cared about your wife you would have bought a SSD to put in there. Especially after it's had multiple reloads...

This. I am waiting for a deal on a 250GB 850 EVO to drop in my wife's new Lenovo. I don't know that it's so much about "caring" as making the most of the machine. Laptops need every advantage you can add. This and RAM are about the only thing you can do to them to squeeze out all the performance they have to offer.

 

[ElectronicBear]

why don't you get her a small (250GB) SSD and an external drive for storage. you can get a 2TB seagate external HDD for less than 100$. it's very small and portable too.