Trying to install Fedora 14 on a Stubborn Sony Vaio

[Patrick Bartek]

--- On Mon, 2/21/11, Jim <binarynut at comcast.net> wrote:

> On 02/21/2011 02:33 PM, Patrick
> Bartek wrote:
> > --- On Mon, 2/21/11, Jim<binarynut at comcast.net> 
> wrote:
> >
> >> A Sony Vaio will not let me boot on
> >> cdrom with a Crashed Windows OS,
> >> trying  to install Fedora only on laptop.
> Even if I
> >> have BIOS set to
> >> boot off Cdrom.
> >>
> >> I even hooked a external cdrom to usb and enabled
> in Bios
> >> to be first
> >> boot device, won't work,  in all cases
> it  will
> >> only Attempt to Load
> >> Windows.
> >>
> >> It won't even let you disable hard drive in Boot
> process.
> > This may be a stupid question, but have you checked
> the ORDER of the chosen boot devices in BIOS?  If the
> hard drive is first in the boot chain, even if the CDROM
> drive is set as bootable, BIOS will stll go to the hard
> drive first to boot the system regardless of a bootable CD
> being in the CDROM drive.
> >
> > B
> Done that, cdrom is first boot device, and hard drive is
> second boot device.

Okay.  Two more stupid questions:

1. Is the drive a CD drive or DVD one?
2. Is Fedora on a CD or DVD?

Had to ask.  It wouldn't be the first time I put a DVD in the CD drive of an old machine and wondered why it wasn't reading.

Have you checksummed both the downloaded Fedora file and burned media?

> I think this is a Vista install and Sony has the laptop
> bootup setup to 
> bootup  on a path to Windows on hard drive. and
> ignores the cdrom.

Never heard of that.  I've fixed plenty of Windows XP and Vista installs on various machines including Vaios by booting off a CD.  Never had a problem.  Try booting the Vaio while repeatedly pressing F8.  Do you get a Boot Device Menu or something similar?  See if you can boot Windows into Safe Mode or to the Repair console.  If you have one, have you tried booting from a Windows install CD/DVD?  Or any other bootable CD?  You may have a bad CD/DVD drive.

B