Troubleshoot Sony Vaio won't recognize SSD

[RoboMan]

Here's the case: my girlfriend's father gave me his laptop so i could install an SSD which i told would improve its performance, because it's a pretty old notebook. So i bought this SSD, i connected it, and i get this message: "no operating system found". I checked a few times it was properly connected, and it was. So after this i grabbed my laptop and connected it. It was perfectly read. I tried an HDD on this old man's notebook (it is a Sony Vaio sve14122clw) and it was read with no problems. I decided to install the OS on the SSD on my notebook and after that moving it to the Sony Vaio, still wasn't recognized. I'm starting to think maybe this notebook is too old for this SSD? Any ideas?

SSD: Corsair LE Force 200 240GB
Notebook: Sony Vaio sve14122clw

Thanks for reading!

 

[SHvFl]

Enabled achi mode using the reply in green from here. I guess it should be this considering the hdd works and the ssd works on your system.
Btw there is no system old enough to get an ssd so the issue is in software.
switch from ide to ahci windows 10 - [Solved] - Storage

 

[tonibalas]

My laptop is SONY VAIO FW 21E.
I bought it in 2009 so i think it's older from the one you are mentioning.
Anyway i have upgraded to an SSD for 2 years now. I installed a Samsung 850 Evo.
Search a bit more and i think you will get to the bottom of it.

 

[RoboMan]

Enabled achi mode using the reply in green from here. I guess it should be this considering the hdd works and the ssd works on your system.
Btw there is no system old enough to get an ssd so the issue is in software.
switch from ide to ahci windows 10 - [Solved] - Storage

I tried it already, but unluckily this BIOS is very small. It has option to configure date and time, boot order, and nothing else. It's really really small and i can't get why...

 

[BoraMurdar]

Did you try updating BIOS?

 

[SHvFl]

Boot the ssd on your system and check the registry setting it mentions there. If it's 0 change it to 3 and if it's 3 change it to 0. Then put the ssd on gf system and see how it goes.
Maybe your bios can't do achi and when you installed windows on your pc it will have achi.

If this doesn't work format the drive and then put it on gf pc and install windows. It should work. If not tell us what exactly it does.

 

[vindiesel]

So that e could see the problem may be the SSD you bought is SATA3 it may be that your Vaio is compatible with SATA2,greetings

 

[SHvFl]

So that e could see the problem may be the SSD you bought is SATA3 it may be that your Vaio is compatible with SATA2,greetings

It's backward compatible so it doesn't matter.

 

[tonibalas]

I did a little search and i think @vindiesel is correct.
This SSD doesn't seem to have support for Sata 2.
@SHvFl i just did another check and you are right, so the problem is something else

 

[vindiesel]

The BIOS does not detect or recognize the solid state drive
There are four main reasons why a system BIOS will not detect the presence of a solid-state drive. Those shown below are not in any particular order, but you can follow these steps one by one to troubleshoot this problem:

Drive not enabled in the BIOS

The Serial ATA drivers are not installed correctly

Data Cable defective or unplugged

SSD drive faulty

It may be problem of drivers?

Hello look at the bios if the configuration is sata not IDE?

 

[Amelith Nargothrond]

If i were you, I would do the following:

1. Update the bios; don't skip this part, the last update is from 11/10/2016 (Sony eSupport - SVE14122CLW - Controladores y Software)
2. If you still can't boot, i would try to boot another Windows environment from a USB flash drive and try to check if the HDD is recognized after booting this environment
3. If it is, i would try to migrate the old OS with macrium for example (if you don't want to do a fresh install) or the best option would be to install a fresh Win10 (though there is only support for Win 8 on Sony's website for this laptop, and Sony is sort of known to use custom drivers for their laptops - might not work with Win10 or you might see some missing drivers)
4. If it isn't recognized, i would first check what options do i have in BIOS after the upgrade, maybe they unlocked some features that may help, specially SATA/ATA/IDE/LEGACY mode/AHCI mode/UEFI, anything related to storage
5. If still not recognized in BIOS, i would check if the HDD is faulty (because it is compatible with SATA 6Gb/s, SATA 3Gb/s & SATA 1.5Gb/s: 850 EVO | Consumer SSD | Samsung V-NAND SSD )
6. If it is recognized by the BIOS but still does not boot or install Windows, you may need to provide Windows, at the installation step, storage controller drivers; the drivers might be custom and you may need to feed them to the installer, using the "Load Driver" option at the screen where you usually would select the hdd and partitions

 

[BoraMurdar]

I did a little search and i think @vindiesel is correct.
This SSD doesn't seem to have support for Sata 2.
@SHvFl i just did another check and you are right, so the problem is something else

It is compatible with Sata2 It is something else, I would try updating the BIOS first

 

[RoboMan]

Thank you very much everybody. I just reached home and i'll start trying everything you mention. Will come back here with results.

 

[tonibalas]

It is compatible with Sata2 It is something else

Yeah i know i read afterwards the exact same page

 

[BoraMurdar]

Yeah i know i read afterwards the exact same page

Yeah, it's very strange. If SATA port is working and AHCI mode is functional any SATA SSD should work

 

[RoboMan]

Hello guys, nothing worked so far. After updating the BIOS, the interface is the same. Literally all options i have are:
SYSTEM DATE
SYSTEM TIME
SET MACHINE PASSWORD
SECURE BOOT
SECURE BOOT MODE
RESTORE FACTORY DEFAULTS
Boot Configuration:
BOOT MODE
EXTERNAL DEVICE BOOT
NETWORK BOOT
Boot Priority:
INTERNAL HARD DISK DRIVE
EXTERNAL DEVICE
INTERNAL OPTICAL DISC DRIVE
NETWORK
EXIT

What i've tried:

Disabling secure boot
Switching Boot Mode from UEFI to Legacy
Enabling External Device Boot
Switching Boot Orders


Not only nothing worked, but i realised it doesn't matter if i save the changes, when i reboot the system, no settings are saved and it's back to original...
I tried to boot from USB on the old HDD but it still won't boot from an external device (probably because External Device Boot is disabled and when i enable, i reboot and changes won't save).

When i boot with HDD, no problems. When i boot with SSD i get "no operating system found", despite Windows is already installed.

Boot the ssd on your system and check the registry setting it mentions there. If it's 0 change it to 3 and if it's 3 change it to 0. Then put the ssd on gf system and see how it goes.
Maybe your bios can't do achi and when you installed windows on your pc it will have achi.

If this doesn't work format the drive and then put it on gf pc and install windows. It should work. If not tell us what exactly it does.

Should i try this, now you've read what i posted?

Thanks everybody for helping me.

 

[SHvFl]

Yeah, it the only thing that makes sense in my mind. There is no reason one of this would not work. Especially the second way but i said try the first at start because it's pretty easy and if it works you will avoid a format.

 

[BoraMurdar]

When i boot with HDD, no problems. When i boot with SSD i get "no operating system found", despite Windows is already installed.

So you were being able to install Windows onto the SSD from within the Sony machine? (I suppose via USB or DVD)

 

[SHvFl]

So you were being able to install Windows onto the SSD from within the Sony machine? (I suppose via USB or DVD)

He installed windows on his other machine not on the problematic machine.

 

[BoraMurdar]

He installed windows on his other machine not on the problematic machine.

But that simply won't work.
@RoboMan did you try booting from a DVD drive if USB booting isn't working?