Solved Clean install of Windows 7 x64 on Sony Vaio 71211m VPCEB3F4E

[sudosam]

Hi,

I have got a Sony Vaio 71211m VPCEB3F4E, it came with no hard drive or recovery discs.
So installed a new hard drive and have tried to install windows 7 x64 (also tried Windows 10) by USB and DVD both fail when it comes to actually installing the OS on the hard drive.
The laptop bios is very restricted and there's not much options, see attached pics

The bios is R1140YB, EC version K1140Y8, ME version 6.0.31.1208

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/laptop-pc-vpc-series/vpceb3f4e/specifications

any help?

 

[mrjimphelps]

Put "Internal Optical Disk Drive" as the first item in the boot priority, and "External Device" as the second item. This will put your hard drive as the 3rd item. And that's the way it should be, so that you can easily boot from a DVD or an external device if you want to.

 

[mrjimphelps]

I suggest that you download the Windows 7 VAIO Care Recovery program for your computer:
https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/laptop-pc-vpc-series/vpceb3f4e

This will allow you to rebuild the computer to original factory condition.

 

[Megahertz07]

I normally put the HDD / SSD as fist boot option.
To begin the installation I launch the Boot menu and choose DVD or USB flash disk.
If you have a UEFI BIOS, you can install Win 7 64 on a GPT or Legacy disk, depending if you booted the installation disk as UEFI or Legacy. Be sure to delete all partitions then create a new one.
Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[sudosam]

Thanks everyone for your help.
Turns out it was a faulty hard drive, I was assured it was fine & it did partition & format OK but when I actually ran surface tests on it = Fail, so fitted new drive and got windows 7 installed no problem.