My Sony Vaio PCG-591L had Windows XP installed on it, and I was trying to install the Fedora 11 distribution of Linux on it. I didn’t have a cd on hand, and it doesn’t seem like the system supported booting from a flash drive, so i looked far and wide for an alternative method for installation. I came across a tutorial (http://www.instantfundas.com/2007/08/install-any-linux-distro-directly-from.html ) and followed the instructions to the best of my abilities. I believe that my lack of understanding in the department of partitions was the reason it didn’t work.I came across a program called Universal Netboot Installer, which claimed to automatically install any distribution of Linux automatically. I attempted to use it and my computer crashed. Now when I turn it on, it won’t boot and it gives me a message saying
A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart
The computer also emits a strange clicking sound at random intervals. it sounds like a woodpecker, or somebody at an old-fashioned typewriter.
PLEASE HELP
How do i get my system to boot again?
I’m fine with losing all previous data. I don’t mind if this is a strictly Linux system.
I have a Fedora 11 live cd now, but i can’t get my computer to boot from it.
Your hardrive might be dead. Try to reinstall Windows Xp if that fails you might need a new hardrive.
My amazing 14 year old brain
Report Spam/Abuse
Try booting into safe mode, if that doesnt help out, u will have to reinstall windows.
Sorry mate
My amazing 14 year old brain
Report Spam/Abuse
Sorry to hear about your problem
I’m going to guess that you’ve installed the bootloader on a non- bootable partition or it became corrupted when your computer crashed. If your installing your linux partition on same drive as your windows partition, you will need to install the bootloader on the windows partition. If just want to re-install Fedora, just use the default options and allow it to overwrite the whole disk.
If your computer won’t boot from the CD, then you likely need to get into your Bios to allow the cd to load on boot. If you’ve already booted from the USB, consider using unetbootin.
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
unetbootin automatically makes USB boot disks.
My amazing 14 year old brain
Report Spam/Abuse