Serious problem and headache from VAIO AR190G (US) model

[AceCobra1]

Hey all,

I just bought a VAIO AR190G off ebay. Basically the previous owner had a problem of 'ntldr missing' error which I thought was easy enough to fix - turns out it is not! Anyway, I am not sure if anyone can shed a light on this... Basically, it was initially in raid configuration so i have removed the raid feature... I boot with Win XP CD and get into the 'press enter to setup' then as soon as I press enter, it just says no HDD detected when clearly in the bios, both HDD are seen.

I also tried Win Vista - it actually installs fine until the final part where by after it tries to boot into windows, i keep getting this 'Windows boot Manager' error which says that some sort of file cant be found - mpio.sys

I am not sure why Win Vista can see the HDD and Win XP can't

They both format fine when I do a quickformat but not when I do a full format - both doesn't work. I have tried one of the HDD on my desktop and it actually installed Win XP fine but when i try to boot win XP from my AR after I install XP from my desktop, I keep getting the BSOD. I just hope it isn't some sort of hardware issue - but I have never came accross an issue where the HDD are like this - I bought a new one off a shop and collecting 2moroz so see where it takes me from there...

I'd really appreciate if someone can share some thoughts or shed a light!

[Blencogo]

Hi AceCobra and welcome to Club Vaio.

Your hard drives are SATA discs. Quite simply XP does not support SATA and you have to supply the SATA Driver. Vista does support SATA with the generic drivers in its Inbox.

As with ANY SATA hard drivein XP you will need a 3.5 inch floppy drive with the SATA drivers on a 1.44MB disc. During the XP install, you must press F6 at the Welcome to Setup screen to install the SATA driver so your HDD will be recognised.

MPIO.SYS is a Windows file (Multipath Bus Driver) and can be downloaded from Microsoft if you have it missing.

You should find all the XP drivers and utilities for your model HERE AT SONY USA

[AceCobra1]

lol, Thanks for your reply.... really appreciate it...

Problem is well... the problem is still there even after I downloaded the boot disc made by this guy :

http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/GB/en/forum/viewthread?thread=41647

And also, when you were talking about the mpio.sys - i can't even boot into windows... how would I be able to put the file into the right bit?

The only thing I can think of is to remove the drive from my laptop and connect it into my desktop and use that as a 2ndary drive then drag the file into some folder?

Thx

Hi AceCobra and welcome to Club Vaio.

Your hard drives are SATA discs.  Quite simply XP does not support SATA and you have to supply the SATA Driver.  Vista does support SATA with the generic drivers in its Inbox.

As with ANY SATA hard drivein XP you will need a 3.5 inch floppy drive with the SATA drivers on a 1.44MB disc.  During the XP install, you must press F6 at the Welcome to Setup screen to install the SATA driver so your HDD will be recognised.

MPIO.SYS is a Windows file (Multipath Bus Driver) and can be downloaded from Microsoft if you have it missing.

You should find all the XP drivers and utilities for your model HERE AT SONY USA 

 

[Blencogo]

I'm thinking the easiest way for you to go is to buy a set of Recovery Discs from Sony. These will have all the drivers etc included on the disc - no need for a floppy.

If you go to the link for Sony USA in my last post and top right you will see you can buy complete Recovery Discs for $17.95 - a bargain as they cost £65 in the UK. These discs should recover the Vaio back to factory settings with the complete Operating System and the Applications. It will be Windows XP MCE but that is almost certainly the best OS for this type of Multimedia notebook.

Not sure if Sony will post to the UK though - do you know anyone with a US Address?

[AceCobra1]

Well well, I'm suprised it actually partially worked! After I downloaded the boot disc from Sony's website rather that from the guy's, it actually went until the bit where it says copying files but then just before it starts, it keeps asking me to insert disc into A: which I have but it doesn't read it! It read it before after I pressed F6... any ideas?

[AceCobra1]

This is the error I'm getting

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=74048

[AceCobra1]

Can anyone help please?

[Blencogo]

Do you not have to press "S" to Specify an Additional Device and then choose your particular SATA/RAID Controller to install?

Alternatively you could turn off RAID in the BIOS.

Have a look at THE INTEL WEBSITE

[AceCobra1]

unfortunately I have... it just doesn't read the floppy... I am going to try to painstakingly do this 'slipstream' method...

[Blencogo]

Good Luck!!

Are you going to use nLite ?