Sony VAIO SVF15AA1QL - HDD died. What is everything needed to work again?

[J. McCauley]

Good morning,

My VAIO HDD is dead. It has both a HDD and a 1TB SSD. Besides the HDD what do I need to buy to get this operational?  When I bought it new in 2013 or 2014 it had Windows 8 on it which I upgraded to Windows 10 during the “free upgrade window” Microsoft had. 
 

I’m trying to determine if I should repair or replace and what the total cost would be to repair. The laptop is in phenomenal condition cosmetically. 
 

Besides the HDD what do I need to purchase?  Is there a VAIO disk that installs all of the Sony items on top of Windows?  Can I just download Windows 10 or do I need to buy it?  If everything I need is on the SDD how do I access the partition to reinstall everything?  
 

Ive looked around the laptop and apparently my Windows key sticker fell off. 
 

your help is truly appreciated!

[sfbp]

The boot is likely from the SSD.

Try completely removing the HDD and see if it boots. I assume you have the HDD backed up. They are pretty standard these days, a replacement should set you back under $50 if you look hard enough.

There are numerous disk repair packages on eBay - I cannot speak for them, but you are WAY ahead of the game since you have a DVD drive which is enough to install Windows from. You should be able to download the latest Windows 10 for free (perhaps on another machine) and it may even activate on your hardware (thanks to the wonders of EFI).

 

[J. McCauley]

@sfbp I took the damaged HDD out. When I start up using the “Assist” button I get the options where I can get into the Bios. I’m not sure how to try to boot from the SSD. I don’t have a backup because I was having trouble with it and was working on it when the HDD went down. I dropped the Laptop and it killed the drive. 
 

Does Sony sell an install disk where I can either upgrade to Windows 10 or downgrade to Windows 7?  It came with the horrendous Windows 8. 
 

Not sure what all I need to get to fix it. The Specs on this VAIO make it worth repairing and potentially upgrading. 

[BearBoy]

Did you make any recovery media for the Vaio? Mine badgered me constantly to do so...

[sfbp]

I'm surprised it doesn't boot directly from the SSD. However I am quite ignorant of VAIO tech. There are, as I say, on eBay numerous repair disks costing about $10.

What you might want to do is put in another HDD and see if it magically comes to life.

[J. McCauley]

@sfbp I’ll try that. I’m not seeing any repair disks on eBay. I was thinking of getting one along with putting in a new HDD. 

[J. McCauley]

@bearboy i don’t have one. It stopped asking when i upgraded to Windows 10. I’d like to find an economical way to get windows 10 on it once it’s back up. It came with Windows 8 sadly. 

[sfbp]

9 minutes ago, J. McCauley said:

@sfbp I’ll try that. I’m not seeing any repair disks on eBay. I was thinking of getting one along with putting in a new HDD. 

Try typing "windows repair disks" into ebay search