Formatting and Recovery

[yusakuje]

Hi,

I intend to format my vaio laptop (FE41Z). It comes with Vista Home Premium installed. I have a number of questions on the best possible way to format and clean install.

I have created the recovery discs and i intend on keeping the recovery partition.

Q1: After formatting the laptop, can I use a Vista Disc to reinstall Home Premium using the serial key underneath the laptop or do I have to create a vista disc to accept the serial key?

Q2: Am I correct that after formatting I can use the recovery discs or the recovery partition to restore the laptop to factory defaults?

Q3: If install Vista via the disc, then using KCAP, I SHOULD be able to install the applications I want?

Many Thanks In Advance

[Blencogo]

Hi yus911 and welcome to Club Vaio.

Q1. No. This used to be possible with XP but with Vista the Serial Key will NOT allow activation. If you reinstall the Sony OEM version of Vista you never have to enter your Serial Key so Microsoft do not recognise this Key as an activation key. They argue that you only legally hold a Sony OEM Vista License.

Q2. Yes. You can boot from the Recovery Discs or use the Recovery Partition by tapping F10 during boot to reinstall the Sony OEM Operating System and Applications.

Q3. No. Kcap.exe will not work with Vista Recovery discs. As far as I know, it is not possible to reinstall the Applications except by reinstalling the original OS.

Some US Vaio models are different and do allow the Applications to be installed.