Sony Vaio SMART FAILURE Hard Drive Replacement - Recovery Disk Failure

[Guest ENBella]

I purchased a new Sony Vaio over a year ago.

Model No. VPCF115FM.

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)

The laptop came loaded with Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2007.

 

Recently, the computer started indicating an error:

"SMART Failure Predicted on Hard Disk" and it prompted me to boot using F1 and then backup my data.

 

Step 1: I used Sony Vaio Care to create 2 sets of Recovery Disks and then used Drive Cloner RX to backup all of my data manually and a system image onto a new Seagate external hard drive.

Step 2: I purchased a new Hitachi 750 GB (7200 rpm) 2.5 SATA hard drive from Comp USA. The computer's original hard drive is a Hitachi HTS545050B9SA00 500 GB 5200 rpm.

Step 3: I removed the original hard drive and installed the new one. Then, inserted Recovery Disk 1 and then Disk 2. After the prompt to restart the computer to finalize Windows setup I received this error message:

"Windows setup could not configure windows to run on this computers hardware."

 

I then click okay and subsequently receive this message:

"Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation."

 

Solutions?

1. Is there a way to boot using the system image from my external drive and re-install that way? If so, what are the best steps?

2. Or, can I use my recovery disks and some type of work around to re-install the OS and factory software?

 

Note: There are no outstanding issues with the laptop. The computer came preloaded with Windows 7 I have the product key on the computer base. It also came loaded with Microsoft Office, but I don't have the key for that? Sony Vaio laptops don't come with physical CD's -- the data is on a partition within the hard drive -- and you have to create the mfg disks yourself.

 

Sony Vaio Hard Drive Failure, Sony Vaio Hard Disk Failure, Smart Failure, Windows Could Not Complete the Installation, Windows Setup Could Not Configure Windows to Run on this Computer, Windows 7, Sony Vaio Hard Disk Failure, Sony Viao Laptop

 

Continue reading...