Windows Update Reassigns Drive letters

ChristoA · 22 Jan 2012

I have wasted 6 days trying to install Windows Home Premium x32 on a Sony Vaio VGN F290 Laptop with 2Gigs of RAM using a new 500 gig WD SATA Hard drive. Everything installs perfectly but when windows installs it's updates in won't reboot and goes to the repair screen. I've gone to the DOS screen and discovered there are now X:, D:, and C: drives with windows on the D drive. These are all on one Hard drive with no other drives attached. Before the updates everything is on the C drive. I've tried reinstalling Windows several times and yes I have all the latest Sony drivers installed and before doing any updates everything works perfectly including going on the internet and restarting the computer. The repair scenarios don't work and system restore has no effect. Any ideas?

seavixen32 · 22 Jan 2012

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NoelDP · 22 Jan 2012

The WinRE RAMDrive system is on the X: drive
Are you sure that the D: drive is Windows? - check the C: drive as well
What sizes are the two? (run DIR C: and DIR D: to check)

ChristoA · 22 Jan 2012

I can't get a screen shot as the sony is down now and I can't bear to go through the reinstall again right now. However when I do the reinstall win 7 shows two partitions have been created on the drive one being reserved for the system. I delete both of these partitions then proceed with the reinstall. As stated above everything is fine until the updates then the restart fails and the repair starts which ends with win 7 being unable to repair and a prompt X:sources and Windows on the D drive. Let me add I've tried using bootsect.exe and bootrec.exe after doing a thorough search on the net but just can't fix the problem. I've intalled win 7 on an old computer using an asus p4p800 motherboard but this Sony has me stumped! Yes I have a legal copy of windows for the Sony.

Thanks for the quick response

ChristoA · 22 Jan 2012

Hi Neal yes I have done the dir and windows is now on the D drive the C drive comes up as having nothing

Thanks

NoelDP · 22 Jan 2012

(It's Noel

)
What size is the C: drive though - if it's 100MB or thereabouts, then it IS the System drive, as it was created during hte initial install of WIdnows.
By default, on an empty space Windows will create TWO partitions - the SYSTEM RESERVED partition of 100MB, which contains files essential for booting hte system, and the normal WIndows partition.

I would suggest that Sony screwed up their Recovery process - and misaligned the partitions in the registry.
A possible cure for this is to completely re-partition the drive to a single partition, then try the install again.

Somewhere buried in Sony's Support area I suspect there's a KB article on this.... but I can't find it

ChristoA · 23 Jan 2012

Problem has been solved!

I went into the Phoenix Bios and saw the hard drive being listed as only having 137 Gigs and it wasn't even the correct model. However these settings in the bios can't be changed so I had to partition a 500 Gig drive into 137 Gig partitions. There's about 64Gigs wasted but it worked. Windows 7 is running perfectly. Only time will tell if it's a stable setup. Oh yeah it only took 7 days and many re-installs to figure this out!

NoelDP · 23 Jan 2012

I cannot believe that a system with that sort of specification has a BIOS incapable of dealing with a large hard drive.
Check and see if Sony has a BIOS update for it.

ChristoA · 24 Jan 2012

Hi Neal

Hard to believe yes but this bios version is the latest update on the Sony website for this laptop. There is one more driver I'm searching for it's the one for the Video Controller. This laptop uses an Intel GMA 900 and an intel 915GM Chipset.