Need help installing Windows 7 on an old(ish) laptop

Just a bit of background story, my friend ask me to clean up his laptop since it's full of junks. Turned out the login password he gave me didn't work. Confirmed with him that the pass he gave me was correct, and he thought maybe his kids has changed it and they forgot it too. Spent sometime trying to figure out on how to bypass the password but the ones I've tried from googling didn't work. So I ask him if I should just format it and install a new windows, which he's fine with since there's nothing important in it.

Formatted the hard drive and installed a new Windows 7 on it in my laptop, The hard drive run just fine when I tried to use it as boot drive in my laptop. Put it back in my friend's laptop and it says "Operating System Not Found". I made sure the hard drive connects properly, it used Windows 7 64 bit too before I formatted it, so I'm not sure why the laptop either can't see the hard drive, or why it won't run Windows 7. I'm guessing it's more that the Bios doesn't see the hard drive but I'm not sure why when it worked just before I format it. There's nothing in the Bios btw that can be changed. All it has is boot order. I made sure Internal HDD is the main boot but same result

I've tried to use windows 7 installer as boot DVD. It went into "Windows is loading files" and "starting windows" screen for a second, then the laptop just reset itself, every single time. I tried using F10 (recovery partition) at boot, it does the same thing, load its files, and then it reset itself. The recovery program thing does this before I formatted the hard drive btw. Whenever I tried to install new Windows 7 or use the recovery program, it just reset itself after loading files even before I format the drive.

I've googled up possible solutions, and the only one I can think of is bios update where one of the thing it fix is "Resolves an issue where the computer may fail to boot to the operating system" but I don't want to do that yet as it might mess things up even more. Some suggest interface connector problem, but since it's the same hard drive that work previously I don't think that should be the problem? I'm at a loss on what to do here, don't think I ever got this much problem trying to install a new Windows lol. Any help is appreciated.

Btw this is the computer, Sony Vaio VPCCW21FX. All the stuff in it, including the hard drive seems OEM
https://esupport.sony.com/US/p/model-home.pl?mdl=VPCCW21FX

 

Are you sure you're in BIOS and not the Boot menu?


It could be that your laptop was set to UEFI BIOS when you installed Windows, and that the Sony is not, or vice versa.
Change the setting like in the video.

Otherwise, try this.
- Make sure both laptops are set to either UEFI or legacy in BIOS.
- Use the HDD from the Sony in your laptop and start the installation.
- When the first reboot countdown shows, turn it off. (the whole installation is copied to the HDD at this point, but no machine specific changes has been made)
- Put the HDD back in the Sony and complete the installation.

-Don't forget to change back the UEFI/legacy on your laptop before using it again with your HDD.

If this doesn't work, you might have to update BIOS after all, ask your friend first.

 

Also, resetting BIOS/clear CMOS might help. Unplug power cord, remove battery and CMOS battery. The CMOS battery can be hard to find, you might have to search for how to open the laptop.

Loading default settings in BIOS is the easier way, if you can find such setting.

 

Hi SL2, thanks for the suggestions! I can't work on the laptop and try your suggestions until tomorrow, but at least now I have new directions to try lol. I'll try to update in a couple of days and see if it works. I hope so, got so much headache just from this lol. Thanks!!

 

Just had the time (and the willingness lol) to get back to the laptop.

Unfortunately, it was the Bios that I accessed, and the only things can be changed was just the time and date and boot order, so the Bios not going to be of any help. I checked my computer and it is also running regular Bios/legacy so UEFI/legacy incompatibility isn't the problem with the installed windows.

I reinstalled windows as you suggested, turning off the computer after it installed before it restart to finish installing driver etc. Doesn't work, the old laptop still say no OS found. I went back to its bios to make sure it recognize the HDD. It does, or at least the bios see the drive. I already deleted the recovery partition since it wasn't working anyway and I thought part of the problem was the MBR keep running to the recovery partition when I tried to install new windows. (And it was, even with the Windows installer in drive and I changed boot order, and making sure it boots from the DVD first, it just keep going to the partition recovery.

But the problem persist. Even after it read from the windows installer DVD, loaded files and go to the windows logo very briefly, the computer just reset itself.

So now, the only thing I can think of is to flash the bios. If that still doesn't work, I'm not sure what else I can do... probably buy my friend a new/used laptop since his old one's pretty much a paperweight right now.

... Just looked up the Bios update file from Sony. It's meant to run as a Win 7 64 bit program. How am I supposed to run it when I can't even run Windows... I was hoping to just make bootable USB Dos and install the bios update from dos.... but now...

 

There may be other ways, you have to search for it. BIOS updates made for Windows are many times useful for a bootable USB drive, it just needs some additional files.
Here you can find lots of info about flashing BIOS different ways, it's not all about BIOS modifications even though it looks like that. Although I understand if you don't feel like putting all that effort in it.
https://forums.mydigitallife.info/forums/25-BIOS-Mods

I don't get it why BIOS looks so normal in the video, it's a similar model after all, while yours seems so messed up.
Did you try to clear CMOS?

 

Sounds like the HDD doesn't have the correct SATA driver.

 

Thanks SL2, I'll read up on your link, hopefully I'll find an answer there. I'm not sure why it's so messed up either lol. Honestly the biggest thing for me is I can't figure out why the computer would reset everytime I tried to install Windows (Load files, Windows logo pops up, split second later reset itself). I'm not 100% sure it's the BIOS, but so far I've ruled out the hard drive (it works just fine in my laptop, and with new windows 7 installed, it boot up just fine too), the RAM, I've ran Memtest and it's fine. I'm just trying to rule out parts malfunctions right now while looking for ways to update the bios. I never tried to clear the CMOS. I reset the BIOS to use it's own factory setting (and all it does is re-order the boot device setting xD), but never done it through hardware/motherboard setting.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, isn't SATA driver loaded by Windows when it starts up? Since I can't even run windows, it becomes a catch 22 if that's indeed the problem lol. Also the Bios does recognize the HDD, so... headache

 

What if your laptop is set to Legacy, and your friends is set to UEFI (without the ability to change it in BIOS)?

If I'm right, you should try this before trying to update or clear BIOS. Try installing again, and make sure that the USB drive boots as UEFI as well, otherwise it won't work. Your USB drive should show up in the boot menu twice. Here's an example.

Sorry if you've already tried this, I didn't quite understand what you exactly tried.

 

I hope you're not using any USB 3.0 ports (usually blue) as they won't work with a regular Windows 7 installer.

 

That counts on the chip set etc. as a USB 3.0 can initialize as a 2.0 or native.

 

Yeah, you can boot the USB drive, but as soon as the Windows 7 installer is up and running you need drivers, and those can't be added at that point.

You have to add drivers to boot.wim, and preferrably install.wim as well or you'll run into the same issue again when you've finished the installation.