Upgrading Hard-Drive on Sony VGN-B1XP

[ed_bremner]

Hi all,

apologies as I know this has been covered before, but can't find it on Forum, so if someone could point me towards the relevant post that would be great.

I have a Sony VGN B1XP with a 60Gb drive with Windows XP on a recovery partition.

I would like to upgrade the harddrive. I understand this will be limited to 139Gb so intend on getting a 120Gb drive.

My question is:

What is the best way of re-loading XP Pro onto this disk from the recovery-partition on the old drive.

The installation is ready for a re-build anyway, so I don't really want or need to mirror the whole drive to the new one, but would prefer to start again on the new drive.

I can get another legal copy of XP, but would prefer to use the Sony version on the partition and that license number.

Is this possible from the recovery disks alone?

Is it possible to use normal XP installation disks and transfer the license No from the Vaio?

Can just the recovery-partition be transferred to the new disk for re-building XP?

Is the best way to mirror old drive to the new one and then re-build XP?

I can see there are lots of alternatives, but would appreciate any thoughts on the best way forwards

cheers

happy Sony owner

eib

[Blencogo]

Hi Ed and welcome to Club Vaio

I think you have answered your own questions!

Yes the limit of 139GB applies to your model.

You can rebuild the Sony version of XP and all the preinstalled software by using just the Recovery Discs - however the recovery partition will not be recovered.

Using another legal copy of XP may work but it is illegal to use the license number on the bottom of the Vaio - you only legally own a Sony OEM version of XP and anyway you will have to reinstall all the drivers and utilities manually and you will lose some of the preinstalled software.

If you want to retain the Recovery Partition I suggest you mirror the entire drive using something like Acronis True Image and then carry out a full Recovery of drive C:\ from either the Recovery Partition or the Recovery Discs - the Recovery Discs are just a bootable copy of the Recovery Partition.

Good Luck

[ed_bremner]

Thanks Blencogo

the key bit that I was missing was that the repair disks will work without the repair partition. Thanks, I was unsure whether the partition was required or not.

Are the repair disks 'standard' replacing to the original version of XP, or do they repair to the latest version of SP and updates?

In other words will a set of repair disks made shortly after original load be the same as a set made now? Is there any advantage to making a new set (beyond reliability). Will they include all updates for instance?

By preference, my intention is to load back windows XP onto the new disc in as vanilla a form as possible XP Pro SP3 and Sony Drivers, but I don't need any of the other software.

Thank you again for your time.

I appreciate it.

It says alot for Sony Viaos that I can be bothered to go to this length for a 5 year old lappie, but it is still a really nice bit of kit.

thanks

eib