Sony Vaio, Win-7, 4k sectors

[NJW]

Hello,

Not sure that this is really the right forums as we don't have a 'Garbage' section.

Machine:
Sony Vaio PCG (VPCEE3J1E), Windows 7 SP1 x64, AMD Ath P340, AMD chipset, Insyde BIOS.

It first came in in April 2014 with a broken hard drive (dropped, physical damage, unbootable). I fitted a new Seagate 500 GB from stock, the same size as the original. All good.

It came in again at the beginning of this year, with the HDD not recognised by the BIOS. I suspect that the spindle was not turning – quiet chugging noise for a few seconds, then nothing. Same result on a USB adapter plugged in to a different machine. Sent it back to Seagate for a warranty replacement.

To save time (sic), I reinstalled Win 7 on another HDD (320 GB Hitachi) while I waited for the replacement. The replacement arrived, same Seagate model number, and I cloned from the 320 GB to the new 500 GB, resized the partitions and filesystem. Booted fine, did a couple of Windows Updates, rebooted and fell off a cliff.

Continuous crashes/restarts of explorer.exe and the audio subsystem whenever (almost) anything is clicked. Can only shutdown via Ctrl-Alt-Del.

Clean reinstall to a nuked drive fails to boot without restarting after the Windows splash screen.

Tried:
- Cloning temporary drive to new drive with Clonezilla (standard practice here);
- Cloned drive to drive with Seagate's Acronis – same result;
- sfc /scannow (from within Windows and Recovery Console) – unable to repair errors;
- Clean install – fails to boot;
- Pre-partitioned (and aligned);
- Windows installer partitions.

The new disk checks out okay (SeaTools), except that it warns of a historic over-temperature (70 C). (I'm confident that this hasn't happened in my care.)
Memtest okay.
Zero problems running with the temporary (Hitachi 320 GB) drive.

No options in the BIOS to change SATA compatibility (or much else).

I'm fairly sure that this is a twist on the 512e débacle (512 logical/4k physical sectors), but Win 7 SP1 has never caused a problem before and I have used the same Hitachi drive to do the same temporary job twice in the last couple of months, always to a larger WD-AF drive, without any drama.

Clearly the Vaio (spit) has a problem. Any suggestions? A new WD Blue (AF drive) isn't even seen by the Vaio BIOS, though it's fine in anything else.

Edit to add: the Hitachi is an older 512/512 drive.

Sorry for the epic (length-wise) post.

 

[DanF]

I had a similar issue a few weeks ago. Apparently it was related to how the disk is formatted, as in sectors. Just like you've mentioned in your post. This was Windows 7, and I had to clone the disk from one to another of a different storage size, a different model, and a different brand.

Not sure if cloning sector-by-sector in Acronis fixed the issue (I honestly can't remember).

 

[NJW]

Not sure if cloning sector-by-sector in Acronis fixed the issue

It didn't for me, but thanks for the suggestion.

It's corrupting files, even in safe mode (only boots once, BSOD, then have to repair the boot manager), so it's difficult to get in and do anything.

I might have to see if the client will accept a 320 GB drive instead of the 500 GB.

 

[NJW]

Epilogue: I gave up. Client will have to accept a 320 GB drive or no-fix, unfortunately.

I have RMA'd the drive back to Seagate as it won't work in another laptop. No other 500 GB (that I have available) is even recognised in the Vaio. Thank goodness they stopped making laptops.