Attempted re-format and re-install gone wrong

hi, I'm new to this forum, and new to computers (in terms of anything other than basic usage). While attempting to assign more space to the windows partition of my laptop ( the previous owner had made multiple partitions for running Linux OS) i removed the other partitions and merged them into the windows one. However, after doing this I am no longer able to boot into any operating system, and realise that this is because the previous owner had set the 'boot loader' (i'm not sure of the technical term, whatever program selects an operating system to boot) to the one found within the linux OS, and by deleting the partitions i no longer have any kind of booting program.

I, along with some more tech-savy friends have invested a few hours a day for the last week into attempting to fix my problem, but eventually decoded to wipe my harddrive and attempt to just re-install. The now blank harddrive is capable of having windows installed upon it, and run from it, while connected to a desktop PC, but when re-inserted into my laptop it can no longer run. When the windows 7 installation disk is run on my laptop, i can not locate my HDD during the installation process, as it requests drivers which are not present. We attempted to install such drivers while my hard drive was enslaved to a desktop PC, but the pc 'does not have the required capabilities', despite being a high capability gaming PC.

My laptop does not recognise usb or any kind of external drive while booting up, so i can not install the drivers that way while in the windows installation progress. I am now stumped and can't think of any more ways to fix this, so i ask of the forum, how can i re-install the Factory Issue pre-installed drivers to my blank HDD.

Model - Sony VAIO VPCF13Z1E/B


Any help is appreciated, as Sony no longer provides support for this model,
yours sincerely a confused laptop user

 

Have you tried detecting the HDD using a live USB drive containing GParted? If you do succeed in the detection, you can format the disc into NTFS and try installing Windows 7.
GParted -- A free application for graphically managing disk device partitions

 

i formatted the disk to NTFS whilst it was connected to a desktop PC, but to no avail. I will try the GParted tip in the morning, but as i#m struggling to locate any USB's while booting, i don't know if it will work

 

If GParted detects the drive. Please format it into the default FAT. You should have the default size of the drive available again. This should make it easy for you to then install Windows 7 again. If you need to download the OS again, then you can use this site
Windows 7 Direct Download Links, Official Disk Images from Digital River
Microsoft has divorced Digital River and moved all the ISOs to the Azure platform. I don't know if the links on this forum have been updated.

 

can GParted be ran from a disk? my laptop doesn't recognise USB devices unless it has successfully booted into an OS.
i have read that this laptop requires a SATA driver to access the HDD while in use, and am wondering if this seems likely?

 

You can certainly burn the image on to a disc using a software like Imgburn. But this is really weird. Have you checked the BIOS settings for any anomalies concerning boot devices. You might not have activated the function which allows the booting of external drives. You can even use your desktop to boot GParted off of a USB drive and wipe the laptop HDD if you have an external drive enclosure for your laptop HDD. You can go to http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ and use the Universal USB Installer.
Pressing F12 should give you a list of recognized devices. There should be an option to select the USB drive.

 

i thoroughly checked the bios, and ensured that booting from external devices was enabled, and changed the boot order so external devices was the primary boot location. i've cleared the laptop HDD already, using a desktop, and then installed windows onto it while it was conected directly to the motherboard. the windows OS wasn't picked up when i connected the HDD back to the laptop

 

That is a completely different issue
Have you tried a drive form another laptop? Windows should still boot up.

There are suggestions online to reset your CMOS. Remove the tiny battery on the motherboard and put it back in.

 

hmm... if i try to install the OS onto the laptop HDD in the state it is now, it says i need to find some drivers with which to make the HDD reachable. however, as the HDD isn't reachable, i'm not sure how to install the drivers to it, if i can at all?

 

OK, the windows 7 install does not recognize your HDD channel drivers. You need to obtain the Windows 7 SP1 install disc and try that. If it does not install right off recognizing the hdd then go to bios and enable ide mode. this should at least get it to install and boot.

Once there get the proper ACHI drivers and install them on the system. You can then remove the installed hdd and ide channel drivers and on reboot it should see and install the ACHI and HDD etc..

 

the bios on it is strange, and semms to be massively restricted compared to what is available on a desktop PC. From what i can remember, there is no option to enable IDE mode

 

Have you seen this?

Vaio_F Series Windows 7 64-bit Clean Install Guide Using OEM Recovery Discs

 

Right, this is with the factory recovery disc's. Do you have these? If so the ACHI driver are preloaded to the recovery disc's.

 

i don't have these disks, and i don't think they came with the laptop. Would it be likely that i could download them from either the Sony website, or from a third party?

 

Nope, you cannot do that. I have owned Sony laptops before, and they leave you helpless like that.

The HDD detection problem is kinda common. Have you tried other HDDs in your laptop? If not, please check if they work.

See if you can enable external boot devices. That is the one that should allow you to boot from the USB drive.