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I have a Sony Vaio laptop running Windows 10 (Well, it did run Windows 10) and I've been using it almost every day since I got it 6 months ago. When I woke up the other day to turn on the laptop I was stuck in an Automatic Repair boot loop. Any option I choose in with the repair tool resulted in the computer rebooting and going straight back into the repair tool.

So, now, I've backed up my files using Ubuntu live USB, but any attempt to install an operating system simply doesn't work. What I've tried so far:

  • Tried to install Windows 10 from USB. Setup will get to the finishing stage and I'll be met with an error like "Setup cannot continue due to a corrupted installation file." or it'll seem like it's installed but when it reboots to finish the setup I'll be met with the installer again.
  • Tried to install Windows 10 from disc. Again, using the media creation tool, I've tried to install and I've been met with the same errors as above.
  • Tried to install Ubuntu from USB. The first time I tried, I was met with an error about /sda/dev(?) (I can't remember the error exactly), although the second time the it installed but after installation I rebooted and when choosing any option (including safe mode) on the grub2 menu, I receive a purple screen until the computer reboots itself.
  • Using the Advanced Windows 10 installer deleted my partitions so there's only allocated space left.

I'm got no idea what to do now. I don't know why the laptop randomly stopped working. Btw, i can't access the BIOS. My laptop has a limited bios and I can only change the boot order, there doesn't seem to be a way to access advanced BIOS. I can access the command line from the repair tool and can run commands.

Jamie O'Hanlon
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  • A six month old computer that came with Windows 10 should still be in warranty. After saving all your data, as you did, and deleting sensitive information, why not bring it back for repairs? – DrMoishe Pippik Nov 09 '15 at 21:46

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Sounds to me like your HDD may be failing.

You should test it with a SMART reading utility to see if it reports any failures. If it does, replace the drive.

If not, create a partition, format it, and (if you make it this far without error) run a disk check utility against it (like say, Windows' chkdsk /r), if any of those actions produce an error, replace the drive.

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Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
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  • Okay so I'm in the command prompt. The location is "X:\Sources" and I ran "chkdsk /r" and received the following: "The type of file system is NTFS. Cannot lock current drive. Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected." I also ran chkdsk c: /r /x and I got the message "Cannot open volume for direct access" – Jamie O'Hanlon Nov 09 '15 at 19:54
  • Did you first create a partition on the drive you want to test, then format it fro Windows (eg: as NTFS), and assign it a drive letter? You need to do that before you can run CHKDSK (since it's primarily checking the file system, which you won't have until you format the partition). – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Nov 09 '15 at 20:01
  • I'm not sure how to do that. What I've done is using the advanced windows 10 installer, created a new partition from my unallocated space. Windows installer created it along with a 500MB system partition. When I click "format" there is no option to assign a drive letter. – Jamie O'Hanlon Nov 09 '15 at 20:07