Attempting Recovery on a VAIO with Ubuntu

**mellowyel** · July 2nd, 2008

So my Vaio laptop has crashed. I REALLY need to recover my files, and I'm unwilling to use a data recovery service that will cost me $150 - $1500 (as quoted by a Best Buy rep). I am attempting to boot Ubuntu off a CD, flash drive and external hard drive, so that I can access my files, but none work, even if I change the boot order in setup. Instead I get the "Windows did not start sucessfully... start in safe mode, etc." message, after which the blue screen of death appears for a millisecond and then the computer automatically reboots. The model is VGN SZ230P; I got the laptop 2 years ago, and it runs Windows XP SP2, I believe, which was already installed when I bought the computer. If i exclude my internal hard drive completely from the boot order, it says operating system not found. Help?

**Yellow Pasque** · July 2nd, 2008

Which model Vaio? Perhaps there's a BIOS update available to correct the issue of booting off external devices. Another possibility is to remove the disk from the laptop and plug it in a desktop. If it's a SATA drive, this is very easy. If it's a PATA drive, get an adapter like this: http://www.datapro.net/products/lapt...e-adaptor.html (shop around if you want to save a few $)