You know those times when you want to throw a computer out of a window? I'm having one of those times... have been for more than a month with this thing.

I'm trying to upgrade the hard drive on this Sony Vaio PCG-705 laptop from a 2GB to a 20GB (for a friend... of course). NOTHING seems to work. I can't even boot from the recovery CD when this drive is installed. I've tried every method of partitioning, i've used phdisk that is required for the stupid hibernation partition, i've tried tricking it into thinking it's a different drive through drive swapping... it's really driving me insane. I can't find a single reason why it shouldn't boot from the CD when this drive is installed. Even if the BIOS has a problem with a drive this large... shouldn't it not care as long as it's only partitioned for 2GB?

I just don't get it, and i feel like an ass because i told this guy the drive would work fine so he's paid for it, and i'm at my wits end after wasting WAY to many of my precious hours on this thing. Hopefully one of you magic workers has dealt with this before? ANY help insanely appreciated!