Hello everyone,
First-time poster here...
I bought a Vaio laptop running Windows Vista Home premium in August 2008 (VGN-NR38E). Up until January 2009 it was working perfectly...
Recently (in the last 3/4 weeks) the whole system started freezing/locking up after about 10-15 minutes of use. Whatever application I was using at the time would lockup and the cursor would freeze on the screen, Ctrl+alt+del didnt do anything either. The only way to resolve this was to hold the power button for 5 seconds to shut it off and start it up again. When vista restarted and got to the main desktop it stated there was a 'hard drive communication error' I looked through the manuals for help but couldnt find anything specific to resolve the issue.
After reading the manual I followed the steps to do a 'full system recovery'. I loaded up the recovery centre and when through the steps to do a full system recovery, after confirming that i was aware it would erase all data on my hard drive it began to reformat my hard drive. This is where the big problem is now... it started to restore but the bar got stuck at 17%. After about half an hour of letting it run, it had still not got any further and was still only 17% through. After a short while an error message popped up and it took me back to the recovery centre. Every time I click full system recovery, the same thing happens, I have tried loading up windows without the recovery disks but it is saying that it cannot find an operating system and sticks on a black screen... Does it sound like a hard drive problem? Will the 12 month guarantee cover it?
Sorry for such a lengthy post...
I hope this makes sense... I am a bit stuck without my trusty laptop. Any help anyone can give will be much appreciated 
John
P.S.using a friends computer to post this, as my laptop cant find an operating system 
profile.country.GB.title
Hi John and welcome to Club Vaio.
You may possibly have a hard drive problem and if this proves to be the case then Sony should replace it under warranty.
If you still see the Vaio logo on the boot screen, try tapping F10 repeatedly when you see this screen and this should start the full system recovery from the hard drive. Make sure you are on mains power and let the recovery run even if it appears to have stopped - don't interupt it even if it takes several hours!
If this fails it will be a trip to Sony for repair - give them a ring here: -
http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/contacts/contacts.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons
Thank you for your help, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it!!!
The Vaio logo does still appear, so I will give the F10 thing a go, if not I'll get in touch with Sony.
Many thanks again
0online
1868178posts