Please can you help me to restore my laptop PLEASE?

[danw567]

The black screen at start up asked for the installation discs.

I had an installation disc but I believe it was the wrong one.

I have a Sony Vaio VGN-N31S.

I used the incorrect disc and it now says The file 'asms' on Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 CD is needed. I dont have this disc and it seems to be installing Windows XP rather than Vista.

I downloaded a Utilities folder from the Sony Website and have burnt that to a disc. Can I just start again, erase whats on my laptop and restore it...I do not know how to do that, please help me?

Thanks

Dan

Message was edited by: danw567

Message was edited by: danw567

[Thalamus.]

Hi Dan,

Welcome to Questions & Answers..

If you restart your Vaio & when you see the logo appear press the F10 key repeatedly, this hopefully should start the recovery process & allow you to restore your Vaio back to factory settings..

[danw567]

Thank you for replying...

It takes me to the Windows installation, thats half way through asking for the Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 CD which I dont have.

I want to erase everything and start again, but it takes me to there?

[Thalamus. · Accepted solution]

Are there any disc's in Vaio's CD/DVD tray, if so remove from the drive..

Normally restarting your vaio and pressing the F10 key when you see the Vaio logo should start the recovery process using the hidden HDD recovery partition..

Does anything happen when you press the F10 key repeatedly when you see the Vaio logo.?

If you are unable to start the recovery using the F10 method above then the hidden HDD recovery partition may be damaged or have been corrupted & unless you created a set of recovery disc's you have two options..

1, Contact vaio support to purchase a set of recovery disc's, you could ask them to try and troubleshoot before committing to purchasing a set of recovery discs.. Purchasing a set of recovery disc's is the only way you'll be able to re-install the original supplied OS & pre-installed applications, etc.

or

2, Install a fresh version of Windows & then install the drivers & utilities from the Vaio support site, obviously you'll be without the pre-installed applications..

[gugabackhand]

F10 doesn't load completely? Thats interesting. I'm not sure but is there a hidden partition in this unit? hidden recovery partition doesn't need disks anymore.