[Q] Vaio VPC Z11 HDD upgrade problem

Hi Guys,

I have a question.

I just upgraded my z11 HDD to a 750GB WD scorpio black instead of the toshiba 500GB. Now the problem is, when i use the recovery disk i created earlier, the restoration goes fine until it finished to copy all the files in the HDD. When the windows setup starts, it says " windows setup could not configure windows to run on this computer's hardware" and when it restarts again "Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation".

Any idea what is the problem, if anyone have already face the problem. Some answer i found in the forum suggest to change the sata mode but there is no way to do so in the BIOS.

If anyone can help it would be great.

Thanks in advance

 

Why not upgrade using disk images? Something like Acronis true image should work.

 

Thanks a lot, i will try to do so

 

Well, I followed your advice and tried few software as Acronis always finds problem with any Backup drive i was using. After restoring with the image however, the system on the new hdd can't use Windows update anymore. i tried all the fix for Windows update afterwards but it just won;t work. i even tried to install Service Pack 1 to see if anything can be done but it doesn't work

 

Another solution would be installing the system from scratch using an original ISO of Seven Pro x64. Then you could activate it using the phone activation service and giving the serial beside your VAIO.

That would be spending more time but at least it would work. Moreover, a clean install is always better than the original one.

 

The problem is likely that the 750 GB drive is a BPKT drive, which is so-called "Advanced format", with 4 kB alignment. Sony's restore tools on the recovery disk assume that the partition table (superblock) is on a specific place on the disk, namely what was the case for 512-byte aligned MSDOS partitioned disks.

You can get around it by erasing the factory-created partition table (superblock) from the drive, which will allow it to be recreated on 512-byte boundary. Note, however, that this will seriously slow down the drive, as it runs in compatibility mode.

Or you can get a BEKT drive, which is 512-byte aligned, but I don't think WDC makes them larger than 500 GB.

Otherwise, the option is, as others have noted, to forgo the restore disks, and use other methods.

I'd use dd and gparted from a Linux DVD myself, but drive recovery programs that are 4 kB ("advanced format") aware should work just fine. Acronis, I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, due to a plethora of problems. Relatively new versions of Symantec Ghost or Backup Exec System Recovery should work well.

 

@arth1, great post, never thought of that, rep added.

 

Thanks for the reply.
@Zebnastien, i just tried to do a clean install with the original ISO but i got the same result. But like arth1 said, it's really a problem with the drive, but it was something that i was not aware of when i bought the drive.

@arth1, Actually now i got a working solution but i had to flash the BIOS, to enable advanced menu and change the sata controller to IDE instead of the original RAID configuration. the trade off is that now Intel RST is not working at all and i don't know if it is a good or a bad thing

 

@mnm372 you said you solved by flashing the BIOS to enable the advanced menu. Where did you find that BIOS update? The only one on offer on the VAIO site for my machine is a minor bugfix release that makes no mention of enabling the advanced menu. I always consider BIOS flashing as a tool of last resort - especially on my customers computers! - so I'm loath to try out the one I've found unless that's the one you used :/

also @arth1 you say you can erase the factory partition table and allow it to be recreated in the right place. I can see how I might erase it (with dd) but how would you go about recreating it? Would you use a windows disk, or testdisk or what? Also, wouldn't any slowness only persist until the system is fully installed and you can use the WD align tools to realign any misaligned partitions?

Sorry for reopening this thread but I have the exact same problem and this is the closest I have come to finding a solution so far.

Cheers,

Roger

 

@arth1: ... you are god!

@r0g: here http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/473226-insyde-hacking-new-vaio-z-advanced-menu-bios.html

It requires some skill and poses some risks, but the payoff for some seem to be worth it.

 

Ahhh, that's some lovely hacking there but alas the machine I have isn't a VGN-Z it's a VGN-E and I don't think my client would appreciate me flashing it with an experimental 3rd party BIOS anyway. I've decided to go the easy route and have just ordered an non advanced format drive for it... that was literally the last one my supplier had in stock, even the 320GB drives all seem to be AF now so god knows what I'll do if this ever crops up again!

Thanks for replying.