Boot Sony VAIO SVS1511V9RB from CD or USB

I bought Sony VAIO SVS1511V9RB today and can't boot it from neither USB flash drive nor bootable CD. I've changed priority of boot drives to Internal CD-ROM, External devices, Internal Hard Disk, Network, and enabled external device boot. But after this only Windows was loaded. Also I tried to press F8, F9, F11 and F12, but also without success, Windows loaded from hard drive instead. I checked that my desktop booted from CD. Notebook can read CD in Windows, and it tries to read it while booting but don't print any messages and just load Windows. BIOS is Insyde H2O, version R0140C5.

Any ideas how to boot it from CD or USB Flash drive?

Dmitriy Sukharev

Posted 2012-08-22T15:45:53.460

Reputation: 171

What happens if you remove HD option from the BIOS boot menu? You might also have to look into upgrading your BIOS if the problem persists. – Darius – 2012-08-22T15:48:49.083

I can't remove options from the list, can only change an order. – Dmitriy Sukharev – 2012-08-22T15:49:42.613

Can you hear the CD spinning when you first boot? If yes, then your problem is probably that the CD is not bootable. – terdon – 2012-08-22T15:50:18.770

Yes, I can hear CD spinning. But I was able to boot my desktop from this disk. Desktop and notebook have the same architecture (amd64). – Dmitriy Sukharev – 2012-08-22T15:53:32.887

I would let it boot to Windows then fire up CPUZ to find out what motherboard is inside and try to find on its manufacture website if there is newer BIOS for it. – Darius – 2012-08-22T15:54:43.177

1Ok. I figured out how to boot from both USB Flash and CD drive. I should rapidly press F11 (about 1.5 minute) until notebook starts boot up from external device. – Dmitriy Sukharev – 2012-08-22T16:50:07.663

+1 for solving it and posting back. Please post your solution as an answer and accept it. It makes the answer clearer and gives you reputation. – terdon – 2012-09-17T04:04:20.790

Answers

First of all there're two loader modes in my BIOS. They are Legacy mode and EFI mode. Default one is EFI. What I tried to do is to boot from flash drive with legacy loader while I had EFI mode set in my BIOS. If you need to do this with Sony VAIO SVS1511V9RB, you should rapidly press F11 (about 1.5 minute) until notebook starts boot up from external device.

But finally as far as my Debian distribution had not very stable EFI loader (or hadn't it at all, don't remember), I decided to change loading mode in BIOS and install OS in legacy mode. Now it works fine.

In summery if you don't know that EFI is and you're going to install Linux, probably you'd better switch to Legacy mode using BIOS.

Dmitriy Sukharev

Posted 2012-08-22T15:45:53.460

Reputation: 171

+1 F11 worked for me on my Vaio. – Brian Koser – 2013-01-26T19:00:57.117

I just got an older Sony VAIO (VGN-NR260E) where I had the same problem compounded that the optical drive wouldn't read DVDs.

I found the best method was to exclude the hard drive from the boot list. You do this by highlighting the drive in the list and pressing X.

To restore it to the list, highlight it again and press X and move it to the desired boot position. I couldn't ever get the F11 key to work on this machine.

tobenisstinky

Posted 2012-08-22T15:45:53.460

Reputation: 36

In Rufus the default settings are GPT but with FAT32(Default). But sony vaio BIOS support MBR with NTFS, When bootable pen drive using RUFUS change settings. Keep this in mind! otherwise, you’re gonna have a bad time.

Link

Sayan Samanta

Posted 2012-08-22T15:45:53.460

Reputation: 101