Hard Disk prevents Win8 laptop from booting to DVD

[HCHTech]

Just posting an unusual situation I had this week in case anyone else has run into something similar.

Sony Vaio E Series Windows 8 laptop
Boots to a windows logo for about 30 seconds, then to the Win8 BSOD (with the frowny face - )
Passes hardware diagnostics, including extended memory test
Hard disk passes short and long tests in gsmartcontrol. There are 4 CRC errors in the hard disk's log visible in gsmartcontrol - all occurring within 30 hours of current. This is the clue - I should have stopped here and replaced the disk.

I backed up the user data, turned off Secure Boot, then tried to boot to a Win8 DVD to run startup repair & etc. Try as I might, I cannot get the laptop to boot from the Windows DVD, or a parted magic DVD or a Kaspersky Rescue Disk.

Sony uses that ridiculous "Assist" button to get into the BIOS or other repair options, and I wonder if this whole system is somehow at fault. I reset the BIOS, tried booting to USB, nothing works. I'll bet I wasted an hour on this.

In desperation, I remove the hard disk and try to boot from a DVD - it works. I can boot from a Windows DVD, a Parted Magic CD and a Kaspersky Rescue Disk. I put the hard disk back in and once again cannot boot to any DVD.

So. I replaced the hard disk, booted from a Windows DVD and Windows reinstalled just fine. For some reason, whatever was going on with the original disk was preventing the system from booting to anything else. Weird.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Turn off secure boot.

 

[anti]

Just out of curiosity what does the drive's SMART data say?

Make a Windows 8 EFI USB key and you won't have to worry about disabling secure boot.

 

[HCHTech]

I guess I wasn't clear, sorry. I DID turn off Secure Boot. I DID try to boot from a USB. Nothing I tried worked.

I didn't make a screenshot of the smart data, and the bad drive was returned to the customer with the repaired laptop. There were no warnings on the smart grid. It looked normal. No reallocated or pending sectors. It passed short and long tests without error. The CRC errors only showed in the error log tab. There were only 4 of them, and they were recent, but not immediately recent. I had no trouble backing up the user data.

In the end, I don't know what was wrong with it, but something was definitely wrong with it. Replacing the drive allowed a reinstall without incident.

 

[DataMedics]

I don't think it's a hardware issue. It's something to do with secure boot that won't allow you to boot from anything else as long as the secure boot drive is in there. I had the same issue with a Toshiba Satellite laptop.

While I haven't researched it thoroughly yet, I think the UEFI is keeping track of the specific drive that it is linked with and won't allow boot from anything else as long as that device is connected (even with secure boot disabled).

I think it's supposed to be a security feature to prevent the use of linux boot utilities to hack in and "steal" data. Which is stupid anyway because all you have to do is remove the hard drive and connect it to another computer to do that.

Most likely the drive is fine and can be formatted and used in another computer.

 

[katz]

I DID turn off Secure Boot.

When you did that, did you happen to notice if it changed to "Legacy Boot"? That would permit a boot to the DVD drive (or USB). Unless there is a real quirky setup in the BIOS, which would not surprise me. I had a Toshiba? in months ago that fought me tooth & nail & would not boot to anything but the HD.

 

[DataMedics]

I had a Toshiba? in months ago that fought me tooth & nail & would not boot to anything but the HD.

Ditto. I had a Toshiba that wouldn't boot from anything, user's kid had changed/forgotten the password, and they forgot to include the toggle in the BIOS to disable secure boot.

A BIOS update existed to fix the missing toggle, but it had to run in Windows to update (which I couldn't do because I didn't have the password).

I finally had to completely hack the thing by replacing the ease of access tools with command prompt executable so I could create a new user account on the machine.

 

[red12049]

Just posting an unusual situation I had this week in case anyone else has run into something similar.

Sony Vaio E Series Windows 8 laptop
Boots to a windows logo for about 30 seconds, then to the Win8 BSOD (with the frowny face - )
Passes hardware diagnostics, including extended memory test
Hard disk passes short and long tests in gsmartcontrol. There are 4 CRC errors in the hard disk's log visible in gsmartcontrol - all occurring within 30 hours of current. This is the clue - I should have stopped here and replaced the disk.

I backed up the user data, turned off Secure Boot, then tried to boot to a Win8 DVD to run startup repair & etc. Try as I might, I cannot get the laptop to boot from the Windows DVD, or a parted magic DVD or a Kaspersky Rescue Disk.

Sony uses that ridiculous "Assist" button to get into the BIOS or other repair options, and I wonder if this whole system is somehow at fault. I reset the BIOS, tried booting to USB, nothing works. I'll bet I wasted an hour on this.

In desperation, I remove the hard disk and try to boot from a DVD - it works. I can boot from a Windows DVD, a Parted Magic CD and a Kaspersky Rescue Disk. I put the hard disk back in and once again cannot boot to any DVD.

So. I replaced the hard disk, booted from a Windows DVD and Windows reinstalled just fine. For some reason, whatever was going on with the original disk was preventing the system from booting to anything else. Weird.

How far did you get in the USB/DVD boot process?

Rick

 

[HCHTech]

Just once in about 60 tries I got the "Press any key to boot from DVD". Unfortunately, pressing keys did not allow it to boot from the DVD, it booted to the hard disk time after time.

In none of the other attempts would anything I did result in anything other than an attempted boot from the hard disk. Once I replaced the disk, everything worked as expected.

 

[HCHTech]

When you did that, did you happen to notice if it changed to "Legacy Boot"? That would permit a boot to the DVD drive (or USB). Unless there is a real quirky setup in the BIOS, which would not surprise me. I had a Toshiba? in months ago that fought me tooth & nail & would not boot to anything but the HD.

Yes, there was separate item for that and it did indeed change to legacy. In the Sony bios, you have to choose to "load optimized defaults" to get it to open up the boot options choices. Otherwise, once you select either Secure Boot or not, that choice is locked in and you can't change it. I don't think I ever saw that before, either.