[nubba]

Hi,

I have a Sony Vaio laptop (VGN-FW31M) with Windows Vista originally, but the last OS was Ubuntu as I couldn't install the Vista anymore from the recovery disks. This happened maybe a year ago, so I don't remember what the problem then was.

One day the laptop didn't start anymore! It just hanged on the startup. I wanted to try the recovery disks or the Ubuntu installation DVD. I modified the BIOS to start from the optical drive instead of HDD, but for some reason the CD/DVD just kept spinning and the disks were never read.

So I adjusted the BIOS again to read from an external drive and borrowed an external DVD drive from a friend. I tried the vaio recovery disks again, and now it seemed it was working.

But the installation failed with a blue screen during the 1/5 disks. I run the HDD tests. Linear seek test and random seek tests passed, but the funnel seek test did not pass (E-HDD-003).

I haven't been able to find what this error code refers to. In some articles the advice is to get the HDD replaced.

Can you please advice?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Nubba

 

[LMiller7]

Looks like the HD has failed. Boot failures, installation failure, and drive diagnostic failures together does not leave much alternative.

 

[nubba]

Thanks for the reply. I know I was asking a miracle...