PCG-VX71P Blue Screen Of Death

[6645Cooper]

Hi all, my first post, just wish it could have been under alternative circumstances, still on to the problem,

i bought the laptop about 6 months ago from ebay, i have used it with no problems since untill today, it starts to load, however it loops after a quick preview of the blue screen of death (here in referred to as BSOD)

i have met this beast before but have come unstuck as the laptop has no internal cd drive, only an external usb cd drive. which doesnt work in dos.

i changed my options and the laptop stopped at the BSOD telling me my problem,

an "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME"

with the tech info
*** STOP: 0x000000ED (0x81E555A8, 0XC000009C, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)


i have tried using the i link 400 cable to link the cd drive and laptop with no success,
also, i only have volumes 2,3 and 4 of the recovery CD's, i never made a system backup/restore from the start menu when the system was operating,

i am now seeking advise as to what i shouild do, i can only think to somehow get a cd drive which runs from the PCMCIA card slot.

someone mentioned something about a slave boot, or ghost something or other.

Any help greatly appreciated

Coops

[Blencogo]

Hi Coops and welcome to Club Vaio.

Not quite sure what to recommend here.

Do you have the original CDRW/DVD-ROM iLink external optical drive? Your model was supplied with one when new. It needs a two part cable - one part for the i-Link 400 cable and one for the power supply to the drive from the socket next to the i-Link.

I think this is it: -

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Sony_PCGA_CRWD1__5398247

When you say you have tried an i-link drive, is this it and it doesn't work?

In theory you should be able to boot to a PC Card drive - but I have not heard of anyone actually doing it successfully.

You can ask Sony Vaio-Link if they can supply you with replacement discs (I'm sure they can) but you will probably be better off booting to a borrowed XP Pro installation disc, opening the Recovery Console and running FIXBOOT, FIXMBR and CHKDSK.

The problem is going to be to get it to boot!

[6645Cooper]

Thats not the drive i had suppplied with mine. i have given it to a mate whos pretty good with this sort of thing, apparently the external cd drive i have is a non bootable one, i think hes gonna remove the drive and link it up to his pc, wipe it off and reinstall xp back on and somehow make it bootable, i'll post back when i get it back and let you know the whole process that he has under taken and to what level it has been successful.

at least if he has no success i have another step to try.

thanks for the swift reply

cooper