Hi all I have been left a Sony VI0 PCG-F801. It is pretty low spec (6gb HD,amd k6 cpu, 64mb sdram) and running ME badly. I have tried to format using the sony recovery disc but it still dont run to good. So I have now been given a genuine copy of M.E with key. Now the questions are if I wipe the hard drive will I need a boot disc as in past times? If I do ;-) I only seem to come across ones that try to load to floppy big problem is the laptop only has cd Rom. I have been told after a lot of beers it is possible to use XP recovery to then load ME but for the life of me cant remember how he told me to do it.so anybody got any ideas. The main purpose of this is just to give the kids a wireless link to the net away from my office Pc.
hey consul, heres my take on things. To begin ME came out in I believe June of 2000? I was pretty young then (preteen)and needless to say it was before the time I was computer profficient and even cared/knew about computers, but times have changed. Now since you are looking to install ME back onto the laptop why not just throw the install disc into the cdrom drive and see if the PC boots off it as any OS installer disc has to be bootable. And then go ahead and install ME. And of course this will erase all data, and if it doesn't boot go into the BIOS and make sure that the CDROM is set to boot before the Hard Drive. What I would do considering your desire for this laptop is to "give the kids a wireless link to the net away from my office Pc" is to install a Linux OS like Ubuntu on it. It is very easy to get accustomed to, is no were near as likely to become spyware/virus infected like any modern Windows OS would be, and lets not forgot that just about everything you could want to do on a Windows PC you can do on a Linux OS (like Ubuntu) with free software? Did I mention that Ubuntu/various Linux OS'es have more special Vista like effects then Vista and they can run on a laptop like the Sony one you have? If this sounds good let me know and I can walk you through installing Ubuntu. Also let me know if you have more ME questions.
peainapod Many thanks for reply A quick update, booted laptop with ME disk that sort of went ok but is still playing up. Tonight I pick up a brand new HP Compaq so yer why not give Linux a bash on the Sony. I have done a lot of research on Linux over the years but never really had the bottle to try it. Downloaded Ubuntu ISO and burnt to Cd. Have tried to install from disc straight over ME 1st errors to come up are "buffer i/o error on device fd 0" which after a quick google is something to do with it looking for floppy, which I dont have. looked in bios and no mention of floppy drive. after 3 errors much the same Ubuntu continues to load then freezes after "loading ACPI modules" with a few errors inbetween If you have the time I have the patience
@consul I researched a bit on your problems/error screens and they seem to be caused by a bug with the linux kernel. But I am no Linux expert, I just dabble in it now and again. But the is a excellent site Ubuntu Forums . org that can help you with everything you need. And just think once you get it working you will have a machine for the kids that doesn't require you to worry about viruses, spyware, or anything of the like!
ok next update, downloaded Mandriva which I was able to run from the Cd. But oh so so slow. So I suppose the next thing to try is to wipe of ME and work out how to install so the laptop just runs Linux?
Thats what I would do. On most if not all Linux install discs there is a formatting screen were you can choose what hard drive to use for the install. From that same screen you can usually format the drive and arrange your partitions.
Check this site out... http://tuxmobil.org/mylaptops.html I bet you can find some really helpful info there.
