topic Where is my Vista disc ?? in PCs & Accessories

Where is my Vista disc ??

dharyadi — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:37:31 GMT

Hi,

Just a quick question. I have just purchased a sony vaio SR in the Netherlands and I want to do a clean installation of the windows vista. But, I got only one DVD in the laptop box, which is Windows SP3 professional disc.
Does Sony Europe not provide Vista disc or did I get a wrong disc ??

Thanks

Re: Where is my Vista disc ??

sonypass33 — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:02:47 GMT

I'm suprised you got a disc at all
Sign the petition if you get a moment
http://club.vaio.sony.ie/clubvaio/ie/en/forum/viewthread?thread=60039

In the meantime you should have a hidden partition on you hard disc that contains the revovery files. You should be able to access this on boot up by hitting F9 while it's booting up.
(Can someone correct my if that F key is wrong as thankfully I've never had to use it)

Re: Where is my Vista disc ??

rich912 — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:29:21 GMT

In the meantime you should have a hidden partition on you hard disc that contains the revovery files. You should be able to access this on boot up by hitting F9 while it's booting up. (Can someone correct my if that F key is wrong as thankfully I've never had to use it)

I think you will find that you need to tap F10 at boot when you see the Vaio logo...

Re: Where is my Vista disc ??

sonypass33 — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 10:26:59 GMT

F10, Sorry, thanks Rich

Re: Where is my Vista disc ??

Thalamus. — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 11:50:59 GMT

Hi,

Just a quick question. I have just purchased a sony vaio SR in the Netherlands and I want to do a clean installation of the windows vista. But, I got only one DVD in the laptop box, which is Windows SP3 professional disc. 
Does Sony Europe not provide Vista disc or did I get a wrong disc ??

Hi dharyadi,

welcome to Club VAIO..

As far as I am aware there aren't any PC manufactures, including Sony, that supply Vista installation disc's with there PC's..

Your Vaio does have a hidden HDD recovery partition using the Vaio recovery center you can create a set of recovery disc's which should enable you recover your Vaio back to the original installed OS and programs just as it was when you first used your Vaio.

The Vaio SR series has Vista Business preinstalled and therefore you have an option to downgrade to Windows XP, I assume that's what the the Windows SP3 professional disc are for, check the paperwork supplied with your vaio..

If, as you've mentioned in your post, you want to do a clean install of Vista you will need to purchase your own copy of Vista.

However this may help..

Following this guide will not give you a 100% clean install, however it will reinstall the vista operating system, drivers, utilities and a couple of the pre installed applications...

Click Start, All Programs, then Vaio Recovery Center..

Click Continue on the User Account Control window

Once the Vaio Recovery Center window opens

Select Restore C: Drive then press Start..

then follow the recovery wizard..

On reboot click cancel on the message which pops up asking you if you want to finish the recovery process by installing the remaining Sony pre-installed applications.

You should then be able to stop Vaio Application Recovery from starting if you click Start , click All Programs , click Accessories, click System Tools then click Task Scheduler..

Click Continue on the User Account Control window.

In task scheduler you should have three windows, Overview of Task Scheduler, then below this Task Status and finally at the bottom Active tasks..

In task scheduler go to the bottom section of the centre column (called active tasks)

Double click Vaio Application Recovery and on the right hand column, select either delete or disable..