Hi hamlet35.

Are you doing this: -

1.  Insert the Recovery Disc No1 into the DVD Drive and shut down the Vaio completely with the disc in the drive.

2.  Start up normally so that the Vaio boots from the Recovery Disc and opens the Recovery Center.

3.  Follow the instructions for a 'Complete Recovery'.

It is necessary to boot from the Recovery Disc to load the SATA drivers which will allow the hard disc to be recognised. 

It may need the boot order to be changed in the BIOS to boot from the DVD Drive before the Hard Disc.  If you continue to have problems, make sure the hard drive is recognised in the BIOS.

Come back with further details of what happens when you start up if you have no luck!

Hi hamlet35,

Are we talking at cross purposes here?  I wonder if you actually have a Set of Recovery Discs - you will have been asked to make these when you first bought the Vaio as they are not provided with the laptop.  This is the only way you can reinstall the OS and software in the event of a hard disc failure as you can boot from Disc 1.

Can you remember where these 'backup discs' came from?

Unfortunately, the Product Key is not a valid activation code for Vista as a 'full' version is not installed, only a Sony version.

Your options now would seem to be: -

1.  Obtain a replacement set of Recovery Discs from Vaio Support.  Unfortunately, they will charge for these as you should have made a set.  See the section marked 'Important' in your model's Guide - Pages 2 & 16: -

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/manuals/RecoTS/2008Q2_TRG_EN.pdf

2.  Download a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and telephone the Microsoft Activation helpline, explain the situation and hope the operative is in a good mood and allows activation.  This should not be possible but I have heard some people have success.  Of course this will not reinstall the Sony Preinstalled software which cannot be downloaded.  The basic drivers and utility programs are available for download, so basic functionality should be OK

.http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/VGN-NR32S_S/updates

3.  Purchase an Operating System of your choice from any retail outlet.

4.  As options 1 and 3 have a cost - I think Sony charge about £50 with courier delivery -  and in the event that there is some other surprise fault waiting to bite you, you should at least consider cutting your losses and replacing your laptop.

I am sorry we have been unable to resolve this issue for you.

Hi hamlet35,

The error code 0x88070017, and message you are receiving may indicate that either the DVD drive is faulty or the disk is dirty or the laser lens needs cleaning. The former and latter may explain why you are having problems installing from the Sony recovery media as well as a retail copy of Windows.

I would first try cleaning the laser lens and disk with a proprietary cleaner. You could also try downloading a free copy of Linux on another machine and then burn that to DVD and check whether this will install.

Rich

Hi Hamlet35,

The reason you had problems installing XP is that there is no native support for the SATA hard drive. The drivers need to be installed from the floppy drive during the install process (not an option in your case unless you have a USB external floppy drive) or slipstreaming the installation CD/DVD. Have a look at the following link for more information.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml

The only feasible explanation/fix I have found for the error message "A required CD/DVD Drive Device Driver is missing. If you have it on a Floppy Disc or CD/DVD or Flash Drive please insert it now."  during a clean install is an incompatibility with Microsoft's AHCI driver (msahci.sys). The solution, if this is indeed the problem, would be to change the AHCI mode for the DVD drive to IDE or ATA in the BIOS. Unfortunately this, given the very limited functionality provided by Sony in the BIOS, I doubt will be an option either. BTW the CD/DVD drive uses native windows drivers so you will not find these on the support site or listed under drivers on the Sony recovery media.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/when-installing-missing-cddvd-device-driver-a/f0666c95-d97c-46d9-87b4-b161f3cfee80

Another explanation of course could be that the DVD drive has an intermittent problem that is interrupting the install due to a read error and therefore the process assumes that the drivers are not in place – just a thought as I have no experience of such a problem.

I’m not sure what else to suggest other than try installing using an external USB DVD drive (assuming you can beg borrow or steal one) or copy the installation DVD to a USB flash drive and try installing from that. You will of course need to change boot priority in the BIOS for either of these options.

Rich

Hi Bea,

Sorry to hear that neither Blencogo nor myself could resolve the problem at distance on this occasion. I agree that your best course of action is a repair centre, but make sure you get at least an approximation of cost before proceeding...

Please let us know how you get on.

Rich