topic Re: recovery tool in PCs & Accessories

recovery tool

zina — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 09:50:27 GMT

recovery utility is a format of some kind for vaio?
i was told (not from sony) that your not suposed to format your notebook by your self
if it is aformat of some kind is it safe for me to do it by myself and if it is easy?
after the recovery is it suposed to be like the day i bought it?will all the software even the ones i deleted be back?
what about software i installed after the purchase?

really confused!

Re: recovery tool

Webster — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 13:56:13 GMT

Hi, Running system recovery is easy to do, it will format your hard drive and restore your Vaio back to how it was when it came from the factory - complete with all the bundled software. However, any additional software you installed plus all your files & emails etc will be lost in the process so you will have to re-install any software that didn't come with your Vaio.

Make sure you backup (copy) all your files, mp3's, documents etc before you do this. You can backup your stuff to cdr's or dvdr's (if you have a writer) or even an external hard drive if you have one.

Hope this helps

Re: recovery tool

Akita — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 17:30:45 GMT

hi there,
great reading your post and the reply i know this sounds a little dim but how do you back up your files etc on window xp home. i have been dithering around in the help files for sometime with no result.
please forgive my lack of knowledge.
best regards.:smileyblush: :smileyblush:

Re: recovery tool

JohnFarrar — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 18:45:53 GMT

To backup your files go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Backup. Use that to backup what you want.
I can confirm what webster told you about the Recovery. I just had to do that to return my Vaio to factory condition before returning it for exchange.

The whole process took about 30-40 minutes but the laptop was back as when I first started it up.
HTH
John

Re: recovery tool

rich912 — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 19:04:40 GMT

It is worth mentioning here that the restore only formats the C drive, anything stored on the D drive will remain unaffected. This is one good reason to move the My Documents folder to the D drive.
To do this; in explorer right click on the My Documents folder and select Properties > Move. Click on the + next to My Computer, click on the D drive and then OK.
If you have any shortcuts to files in this folder they may need to be re-established.

Re: recovery tool

Akita — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 19:34:09 GMT

:smileygrin: good one Rich912, it's help like this that really proves usefull to us rookies. i would never have known or thought to have done that.
Thank sooooo much.

Re: recovery tool

rich912 — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 19:37:04 GMT

Pleased to have been of help Akita:smileyhappy:

Re: recovery tool

zina — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 23:53:31 GMT

thanks guys....always usefull information...sometimes even more than hoped for:smileyhappy:

Re: recovery tool

zina — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 00:41:52 GMT

hey.......at my system tools i dont have back-up!
is it possible?

Re: recovery tool

Webster — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 00:42:19 GMT

It is worth mentioning here that the restore only formats the C drive, anything stored on the D drive will remain unaffected. This is one good reason to move the My Documents folder to the D drive.
To do this; in explorer right click on the My Documents folder and select Properties > Move. Click on the + next to My Computer, click on the D drive and then OK.
If you have any shortcuts to files in this folder they may need to be re-established.

Good point Rich912 - I should have pointed that out. sorry Akita/Zina

Re: recovery tool

Eugenepang — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 00:44:49 GMT

hey.......at my system tools i dont have back-up! 
is it possible?

Then you will need some backup software eg. norton ghost etc.

Re: recovery tool

tonybeard — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 00:45:36 GMT

Rich is tops isn't he. One other thing that has got me out of jail too is the system restore which is not the same as a system recovery as such. It restores your system to a time before you had a problem. Like the day before or even that day. It means you don't have to recover your system which can take hours reinstalling all the updates etc. By the way copy all the Sony updates and put them in a folder on D drive so you can apply them at your leisure best after you have finished updating from Microsoft (which takes hours) Control Panels/Maintainance/System RestoreThis sign says STOP

Re: recovery tool

Akita — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 20:22:45 GMT

hey.......at my system tools i dont have back-up! 
is it possible?

Hey zina your not alone, it seems i dont have a system back up either. i have looked into my mcafee to see if i can use that to make a system disk, it seems though that i can only make a rescue disk if i have a floppy, i dont.
so i'm unsure what to do in the unlikly event that i have to restore my system.
the mcafee people say dont restore you system, that's helpful.
so it seems you cant cover all potential problems.
good luck with yours.
Akita.

Re: recovery tool

kee-lo_ — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 21:00:36 GMT

Atika,

Take it you want to make an image of your hard disk so you don't have to reinstall everything? Correct?

If so then you'll need something like Norton Ghost, Or TrueImage. There are not many free ones...

Re: recovery tool

rich912 — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 21:00:40 GMT

For reasons best known to Microsoft the backup utility with XP Pro was not included with XP Home. It is possible to install it from the XP Home CD but I am not sure whether this applies to Sony recovery CD and somehow I doubt it. In the unlikely event that it does have a look here for instructions.

Re: recovery tool

kee-lo_ — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 21:02:00 GMT

Rich

Think it's in the VALUEADD folder in i386 on the DVD

Re: recovery tool

rich912 — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 21:04:21 GMT

Thanks Kee-Lo, in that case it should be possible to install it.