Laptop boot without HD?

[CubanCorona]

So for a while my vaio was freezing up at random times. Now it sometimes refuses to boot at all. A few times it has made it (I think) through the POST (the sony logo came up) and said "operating system not found." Sooo I assumed it was a HD problem.

But when I disconnect the HD, it doesn't even go through the BIOS POST! The screen stays blank (not just blank, but completely off--no backlight) but the lights come on. If I leave the HD connected it still doesn't POST and the screen doesn't turn on, but I can hear the HD whirring.

If this was a HD problem, wouldn't the lappy make it through the POST? Wouldn't it make it through the POST even with no HD? At least I would think the screen would turn on?

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: CubanCorona
Now it sometimes refuses to boot at all. A few times it has made it (I think) through the POST (the sony logo came up) and said "operating system not found." Sooo I assumed it was a HD problem.

When it goes that far it is through the POST and is attempting to load the OS from the boot device(s) that it is(are) selected in the BIOS. The Operating System Not Found Usually means the hard disk boot data at a minimum is corrupted missing etc... The BIOS is seeing the hard disk, it just isn't finding the expected data when it tries to read it.

If this was a HD problem, wouldn't the lappy make it through the POST? Wouldn't it make it through the POST even with no HD? At least I would think the screen would turn on?

Some do and some don't with the hard drive removed, My Dell just states no boot device found F1 Retry and F2 BIOS when the hard drive is removed.


Just my opinion but I think the boot sector of your drive is shot or corrupted. You could try booting from XP and use the repair tools Fixmbr in the recovery console or a repair installation.

pcgeek11

 

[CubanCorona]

Thanks for the input.

I would have at least thought the screen would power on without the HD. I'm gonna borrow a HD from a friend with the same model in a few days, so I'll let everyone know if that was the problem.