Sony Vaio FS515B Boot Issues (With Re-Installing Windows).

[James_J]

Hello Everyone,

I'm currently attempting to restore my old Sony Vaio FS515B to it's original factory state, however I'm running into a few issues. It's internal optical drive has failed, and I'm in the process of looking for a replacement. In the meantime, I've attempted to boot the laptop off of an external optical drive which I know works and works fine when the laptop is booted to it's existing operating system.

I'm attempting to re-install Windows XP from the external optical drive, however in the BIOS boot order its just not there, nor are any other options for USB devices. I've had this laptop for many years and I know that it used to boot off of USB devices and that I used to set it to boot from USB devices in BIOS. I also know that I've used the same external optical drive to boot up this laptop in the past.

Does anyone understand how this has happened and if it's possible for this laptop to boot from USB devices again?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[Marino.Manolo]

https://community.sony.it/t5/pcs-accessories/booting-from-usb-with-vaio-vgn-fs515b/td-p/42270

Manolo

[James_J]

Hello Marino, 

Sony withdrawn drivers for operating systems older than Windows Vista back in 2017 meaning that I cannot get any BIOS updates from the Sony website. I also cannot use linux to access the grub boot menu because the laptop will not boot from any external devices. 

Thanks for your advice though, I do appreciate it.

[Marino.Manolo · Accepted solution]

https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagers.html

Manolo

[James_J]

Thanks and sorry for the late reply, this solution worked perfectly.