Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

[rugmankc]

VAIO FZ,

I hit F2 and this is my Boot Screen

1. USB Optical Drive *
2. Internal Optical Drive
3. Floppy Disk Drive *
4. USB Flash Drive *
5. USB Hard Drive *
6. Internal Hard drive
7. Network

A note says the * means these drives are available when External Device Boot is Enabled. That is on the Advanced Tab and I can do that. It is currently disabled. But, not sure what it all means.

The Floppy Disk drive has the * (hence not available?) but it boots first when I turn on the computer if a disk is installed (like a DVD or my Linux CD that I use to load Acronis True Image during backup and restore). But, the USB Hard Drive will not boot into Acronis if it is connected and turned on when I turn on the computer.

I want the Floppy to boot first if a CD/DVD is installed and the USB Hard Drive to boot first if it is connected and turned on. I don't use optical drives. But, to make the USB Hard Drive bootable, I did install on the USB Hard Drive a 125MB Fat32 Flash partition. So, I don't know if the computer will read the USB Hard Drive as a Flash and not a USB Hard Drive when it is connected at startup. At present, when I turn on the computer with the USB Hard Drive connected and turned on, it just boots into Windows and not into Acronis True Image as the Fat32 Flash partition is suppose to have it do.

I thought I could just enable the External Boot Device under the Advanced Tab and leave the order the same. But, since the Floppy Drive has an * like the USB Hard Drive, I don't know what I am accomplishing.

It is possible that the current configuration is correct for what I want to do, but the Fat32 Flash partition is not working and the USB Hard Drive is still not bootable.

Hope this isn't confusing and any advice would be appreciated.



Ken

[ScuderiaConchiglia]

There is no Floppy drive on an FZ series machine. Your external drive is a USB Hard drive, not a USB Optical drive.

So I think you want the order to be:

1. Internal Optical drive (this is your CD/DVD built in drive)
2. USB Hard Drive (your external)
3. Internal Hard drive

Gary

[rugmankc]

Thanks ScuderiaConchiglia,

Understand there is no floppy. Do I rearrange the order on the boot screen to the one you posted and have the rest follow the Intenal Hard Drive on the list? And, do I have to "Enable" External Device Boot on the Advanced Tab of the Boot Screen to have that order work the way I need it to?

I guess I thought since the CD/DVD Drive and USB Hard Drive are already a head of the Internal Hard Drive on the current list, it should already work the way I want it to, if I correctly made the USB Hard Drive Bootable. Am I wrong on that thought?



Ken

[ScuderiaConchiglia]

Rugmankc,

Technically yes. But there is no point in having the BIOS looking for devices you know don't exist. It just slows things down.

I have a feeling that the issue is that the USB hard drive is not correctly set up for booting. But I have ZERO experience in doing that.

Gary

[rugmankc]

ScuderiaConchiglia,

Thanks Again,

I will try the order you suggested. I can always go back to default settings.

I will check with the individual in the Acronis Forums to see if there is a way I can tell whether the USB Hard Drive was set up correctly to boot into the Acronis Environment.



Ken

[rugmankc]

ScuderiaConchiglia,

Got it working, thanks for the help. After you told me the Internal Optical Drive is my CD/DVD and I looked at the screen a little closer, I realized the only two drives with no asterisk were the CD/DVD and Internal Hard Drive. So, all was working as it should. I just changed my order as you suggested and Enabled the External Device Boot under the Advanced Tab on the Boot Screen. The Lacie now boots into Acronis when it is plugged in prior to computer turn on.



Ken

[Napoleon22]

I have an FZ280E/B and am interested in upgrading the hard drive to 7200rpm or even a solid state drive, but Sony support does not recommend this because they cannot assure the normal functionality of the computer. Will this actually wreck the computer, or are they just being paranoid?

[caio2k]

I have exact same problem
the blu-ray drive has problem reading cd roms
it seeks and make noise for long and can't read cds

My blu-ray drive is doing the same with CDs... It can´t read or burn CDs anymore!! But DVD is ok. Weird problem!
If there is anybody else who does have the same problem, let us know!

[coolguy]

uninstall the drive from the device manager > delete the driver checked > install driver from the sony web site

[VAIO_FZ]

I have an FZ280E/B and am interested in upgrading the hard drive to 7200rpm or even a solid state drive, but Sony support does not recommend this because they cannot assure the normal functionality of the computer. Will this actually wreck the computer, or are they just being paranoid?

I think its safe to upgrade the HD. I don't see any problem of going wrong.