New HDD, Operating System Not Found

[Amg118]

I have searched the forum and have come across similar issues, but no solution for the specific situation I have.

I have a Sony Vaio VPCEH laptop. Original HDD was a 320 GB SATA Western Digital Scorpio Blue. This hard drive crashed, and would not load Windows, just gave an error message saying to insert repair disc. I made a repair disk and a clean install Windows 7 ISO boot disk. Neither would work.

I purchased a new, blank Seagate 500 GB SATA HDD. (I'm not really too computer-savvy, but it wasn't difficult to remove the old hard drive and insert the new one-also there is only one HD space). Now I am trying to install Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit (which came with the computer and I have a product key for). When I power on the computer, I only get the error message "Operating System Not Found". I cannot get into BIOS or any other boot screen.

I briefly put the old hard drive back in (I can at least get to BIOS with it) to make sure the BIOS boot order was correct (optical disk drive is the default first boot option). But with the new hard drive, it sounds like it's trying to read the disk, then I just get "Operating System Not Found". I have tried all F keys (usually F2 gets me to BIOS), delete, enter, escape, ctrl+alt+del, escape, shift+ F10 and I just get a repeating "operating system not found". I downloaded the Windows 7 ISO from Digital River after finding the link on this forum. I burned it to a DVD. I have tried two different disks, and tried it in a working computer and the Windows Install screen comes right up. But then I try it in my laptop, it sounds like it working, and then the error message.

I have read about creating a partition for the Windows install, but how do I do this if I can't get to any boot screen?
I do have access to a functioning computer at work
I would much appreciate any help with this!

 

[Pendaws]

Sounds like you may need to clear the CMOS? Did the BIOS have a password? I found the bottom part on another site, might be worth a try?

I'm not sure if this will work for this Sony model, but try it out.

Power off the laptop completely by holding the power button for 5-10 seconds.
Then press ONLY the ASSIST button until the laptop powers on, and you should get into the BIOS.

Take a look at this as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL9axnr-8Qk

 

[gregrocker]

Work through the steps for Overcoming Windows 7 Installation Failures - Windows 7 Help Forums.

Operating System Not Found means it is trying to boot the HD and not the Win7 installation media. You'll need to reboot and tap the Sony F12 key to access a Boot Menu, choose DVD drive. Do you get a prompt to Press Any Key to Boot Disk? If not the disk is bad so download a new ISO and burn another provided in tutorial.

 

[Amg118]

Pendaws- the Assist button produces the same results- computer powers on, brief "VAIO" screen, straight to error message. I will try the CMOS this evening and report back.

Gregrocker- I will give your suggestions a try tonight. I have not been able to access any type of boot menu, and it does not ask if I want to boot from the disk. I will burn a new copy and try again, after clearing CMOS as Pendaws suggested. I will report back.

Thank you both so much for your time and suggestions.

 

[Gator]

You get the "Operating system not found" for two reasons (for the most part).

The one in which Greg mentioned, where you have a brand new HDD nothing on it and during POST, its not recognized as a bootable disc with an OS on it and with hardware failure. At that point in time, when you get that error message, Windows has not even tried to load yet.

 

[Amg118]

I cleared CMOS by removing and reinserting the small battery on the motherboard. BIOS has no password. "Assist" takes me right to the error message. I am able to get into BIOS with F2, and boot order is correct (Optical disk drive first). Tried F12 repeatedly but I get no boot screen, no prompt to boot from disk. I made a third boot disk with the ISO and double checked it on a working computer. Tomorrow I am going to try USB instead. Just wish I could get to some other kind of boot screen, as BIOS options are very limited. It is recognizing the HDD in BIOS though.

 

[gregrocker]

Are you using fresh ISO and tool provided in tutorial to burn disk or write stick?

Did you try resetting the BIOS to defaults in setup? That's a lot less risky than a accessing the battery on a laptop. Try that now then set SATA controller to AHCI. Set the HDD first to boot.

 

[AddRAM]

And exactly how did you check it on another machine ?

Did you attempt to boot from it and did you get the words "Press any key to boot from cd/dvd: ?

 

[Amg118]

Are you using fresh ISO and tool provided in tutorial to burn disk or write stick?

Did you try resetting the BIOS to defaults in setup? That's a lot less risky than a accessing the battery on a laptop. Try that now then set SATA controller to AHCI. Set the HDD first to boot.

I used the ISO and disk burn procedure found here http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html
BIOS is set to defaults.
I have no option to configure SATA settings in BIOS.
It will not boot with HDD as first boot option.

 

[Amg118]

And exactly how did you check it on another machine ?

Did you attempt to boot from it and did you get the words "Press any key to boot from cd/dvd: ?

I just put the disk in a fuctioning desktop computer (at work) and the "install windows" came right up. I did not try to actually boot from it though.

 

[AddRAM]

If you can`t get to the boot screen, then the boot order in the bios has to be...

1) DVD Drive
2) Hard Drive.

If you want to use a boot screen, it should show you which key to push when you first turn on the pc, usually at the bottom.

 

[gregrocker]

Can you boot any other disk in this PC like Free Partition Wizard ?

Can you boot the disk you burned in any other PC?

Try flash stick since these disk should all autostart with a blank HDD.

If Flash stick won't boot then disable the DVD drive in BIOS to eliminate it as suspect.

 

[Amg118]

I loaded the ISO onto a freshly formatted flash drive at work today. Came home, turned on computer, tapped F2 for BIOS, enabled external device boot, put external device first in boot order, turned off computer, plugged in USB flash drive, turned on computer and... VOILA!! Black screen with "windows is loading files" then went straight to windows install screen asking for language preferences.
I still don't know why it wouldn't work with the disk, but at least it's working now.
Thank you for all the suggestions and support!

 

[Slartybart]

Two thoughts on why the first attempts failed

1) The dreaded user error
I've seen people simply burn the ISO to a disc without making it bootable - an easy thing to do by mistake. I don't know if that happened in your case or not.

2) The dreaded bad media.
In some cases the download was incomplete or corrupted in transmission.
In other cases the DVD wasn't written correctly or the flash was bad (this was a hard nut to crack)

BIOS will look for something to bootstrap - it shouldn't matter what the boot order is in your case, there wasn't anything on the HD, so it looks at the Optical drive and Flash ports in the boot order specified if external device booting is allowed. When it finds a device with bootstrap code, BIOS hands over the process to whatever code is on the device.

Until I read about your success, I wondered if the HD was seated correctly. My HP Vista machine won't do anything unless there is a HD connected.

Glad you're on your way to a successful install now.