I Can NOT format

Spranza · #1 Oct 23, 2009, 02:01 AM

hi everybody

I am facing a very frustrating problem in my laptop. I have Sony Vaio VGN-S58GP laptop and I want to format it using my 2 Recovery DVDs BUT

my DVD drive isn't working. It can't read any DVDs or even CDs... I really need to format my laptop but I can't find any other ways to do that unless if I boot from the Recovey DVDs. How can I do that

any ideas PLEASE

btw I have an external DVD LG Drive and I entered stup by pressing F2 while booting and I have these boot potions:

Optical Drive
Folppy Disk Drive
-Hard Disk Drive
HTS541080G9SA00
Network

and whenever I press Enter on one of them nothing happenes..!!

Scleros · Oct 23, 2009, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spranza

whenever I press Enter on one of them nothing happenes..

How is the external DVD drive connected? If it is connected via USB or Firewire, those options are not listed in the F2 boot menu. I wasn't able to find a manual or BIOS information on Sony's Asian support website concerning this laptop model, so I can't tell you exactly what you will need to do, but generally the boot order and available boot devices are configured in BIOS setup. It wasn't clear from your post whether F2 gets you into BIOS setup, or just presents alternate boot devices during boot. If selecting the "optical drive" entry during boot will not allow boot from the external drive, you will need to enter BIOS setup and add to the available boot device list the interface (USB, etc.) for how the external drive is connected. There may also be an option for whether booting from removable media is allowed, which would also need to be enabled. Also, if this option exists and is currently disabled, enable it and try the "optical drive" boot device again.

Alternatively, you could get the internal DVD drive replaced or repaired first, and then proceed with recovery.

Spranza · Oct 23, 2009, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scleros

How is the external DVD drive connected? If it is connected via USB or Firewire, those options are not listed in the F2 boot menu

Its connected via USB

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scleros

It wasn't clear from your post whether F2 gets you into BIOS setup, or just presents alternate boot devices during boot.

It's the BIOS setup

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scleros

, you will need to enter BIOS setup and add to the available boot device list the interface (USB, etc.) for how the external drive is connected.

Can you please tell me how can I do this? I am a newb in computer stuff..

Scleros · Oct 23, 2009, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spranza

Can you please tell me how can I do this?

Like I said before I couldn't find specific info on that laptop model on Sony's website in order to tell you exactly what needed to be done. If you can get into the BIOS setup with F2, without changing anything just look around for the storage section or boot order settings. Usually there is a list for all available boot devices. Individual devices can be enabled or disabled and their order changed in the list. Hopefully there will be a USB option that can be enabled. Contact Sony support if necessary; they should be able to walk you through it.

Spranza · Oct 23, 2009, 01:43 PM

Thanks a lot. I'll contact Sony about this



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