Recovery Utility & Vista

[gsense]

hi there,

I upgraded my XP Vaio to Vista but have had loads of headaches with it.

Ive just bought a new PC with Vista pre-installed so now I really want to restore my Vaio back to its original config.

Promlem is the Recovery Utiltiy wont run telling me 'the active partition is being used...'.

Is it possible start the Recovery Util by command line or by booting to the partition? I dont have any restore CDs as the restore uses the HDD for recovery.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Model: VGC-RC102

Cheers

G

[Blencogo]

Hi gsense and welcome to Club Vaio.

You can try booting directly into the Recovery Utility by repeatedly tapping F10 when you see the first Vaio screen when booting the Vaio.

Do you have any other partitioning software installed - this can interfere with the EISA Recovery Partition. Software like Norton 'Go Back' needs to be uninstalled first.

It is always a good idea to make Recovery DVDs - just in case. I know it is a belt and braces approach but will safeguard against a corrupt hard disc.

[gsense]

Thanks for your help Blencogo - much appreciated.

I couldnt access the recovery util whatever I tried.

So I bit the bullet and restored the system using another XP disc and have now installed the OS to try and see if I can run the Recovery Util (which I downloaded).

The recovery partition is still healthy but when I cannot run the Reovery Utility even from a clean install of XP.

For some reason after I installed te Recovery software from Sony I only get a couple of DLLs but no exe as I would expect.

Again, the software is listed in Windows but I have no shortcut on the Programs Menu and no exe to run in the install dir.

Windows is running fine but no luck with this..

Any ideas?????????

Thanks again

G

[Blencogo]

Unless you can open the Recovery Utility by tapping F10 during boot or have a set of Recovery DVDs, you are going to have problems.

I don't think the VAIO Recovery Tool accessed from All Programs (VARU.EXE) works with any operating system except for the originally installed Sony XP Home OEM Operating System. It will not work with any XP commercial installations.

You have two choices: -

1. Download the Original Drivers Package and the Original Utilities Package and install these in your commercial XP installation. You will lose all the Sony pre-installed software. This is a big problem on your model which relies heavily on Vaio Zone, Vaio Media etc - these cannot be downloaded and without them you will lose your TV capability.

2. Purchase a replacement set of Recovery DVDs from Sony Support to get all your XP functions back.

[gsense]

Agian thanks Blencogo

Your right I have a host of issues now and I still cannot access the recovery partition.

TV Card not working as you mentioned and the reason I spent the exra on a Vaio was I like the Sony platform, so I do want all the Sony SW working.

I have contacted Sony for some replacements.

Thanks for your help

G