I’ve just nuked my laptop. Really. I did.
After two installations of Windows 7, performed on two different desktop computers, one from scratch in Carinthia (you remember the hard drive failure?) and one upgrade in Vienna, I had become reckless: I decided to do it on my Laptop, a Sony VGN-Z21MN, as well.
The laptop had come preinstalled with Windows Vista Business 32 bit, and I wanted to run Windows 7 64 bit (I really intend to use all of my 4 GB RAM). I didn’t want to ever go back to Vista, thus I decided to make no recovery disc. Reckless. Did I say “reckless”?
While installing, Windows 7 did not give me any option to keep the recovery partition, so I simply opted for the possible, wiping everything that was there, installing Windows 7 from scratch.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Windows 7 installed, and then it rebooted into … a black screen. Oops! Uhhh … this Sony has two graphics cards, an Intel chipset on the motherboard and a separate NVidia graphics adapter, some 9300 or so. Switching (via a hardware switch) to the Intel graphics adapter at least gave me back my display, but then I got a crash a little later.
Well, the new installation did not work. It says something about an unexpected crash and that it needs to reboot, and upon reboot it just gets to the same point again. The Visa installation is gone, Windows 7 can’t install, the Windows XP DVD, that came with my laptop, does not even boot. My laptop is a brick. A brick, that has cost me 1400€.
No reason to panic. I will find some solution. Probably. Wish me well. I need it.
The Song of the Day is “The Cost Of Freedom” from the 1993 Marla Glen album “This Is”. Hear it on YouTube.