topic Re: wiped hard drive? in PCs & Accessories

wiped hard drive?

onlyme — Fri, 25 May 2007 19:58:42 GMT

Hi All
My laptop (vaio) had accumulated so much junk, even though I do a clean every month or so, that some programs didn't run properly and everything started to run slow. (we've all been there)
I decided to do a clean wipe of the HD. Copied all the files I wanted to my desktop which are fine. What I didn't check was what op system I had on it and installed XP Pro. It was only then that I got up the start-up screen saying which did i want to use XP Pro or XP Home edition. Clearly now I had XP Home pre-installed.
XP Pro runs ok but I cannot get any of the pre-inst vaio of which has the wlan software etc.
Also, when I go into Properties for C drive it shows used space 19.6gb and free 12.9 but its a 80g HD. I've obviously done something wrong and need your expertise to put it right. I did partition the HD when I had the computer but with most shop purchases the software came pre-installed. Please help if you can

Regards
andy007

Re: wiped hard drive?

rich912 — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:07:25 GMT

Hi onlyme,

Some further information would be useful – i.e which model do you have and did you use the original media recovery disks to recover your machine (as you had the option for XP Pro, and your system apparently came with XP Home, I assume not).

The more information you can provide the better the chances that someone will be able to assist…

Re: wiped hard drive?

onlyme — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:17:59 GMT

Hi Rich912

M/n VGN-FS315B

No disc's came with the laptop. Everything was pre-installed. I did make a recovery disc some weeks after purchase which was over a year ago and cannot find them.
Basically I inserted the xp pro disc and followed the on screen instructions. It was at that point I realised there was another version installed which was Home /Edition. The xp pro version I just installed was one I purchased a few yrs back for another computer and thought it would be ok to use that.. how wrong I was.

Andy

Re: wiped hard drive?

Thalamus. — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:23:53 GMT

Hi Andy,

If you wish to restore your FS315B back to the original Sony installed operating system and applications then as long as the recovery partition has not been deleted you could try pressing F10 repeatedly when starting you vaio, this normally would start the recovery process..

Re: wiped hard drive?

onlyme — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:43:07 GMT

Hi Thalamus

Thanks for the reply. tried the f10 but only get the screen
'please select the operating system to start'
Micro.... XP Home
Micro.... Xp pro

If I select the 'Home' edition I get 'windows could not start because of computer disk hardware config problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the windows doccument about further help etc...'

I can select the xp pro form the list and xp loads ok but i have no access to anything Vaio.

Andy

Re: wiped hard drive?

rich912 — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:46:43 GMT

tried the f10

Have you tried continually tapping F10 when you see the Vaio logo? Pressing F10 once is not sufficient to access the recovery partition...

Re: wiped hard drive?

onlyme — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:48:49 GMT

Yes.. right from the moment it re-boots right up till the select op syst screen shows

andy

Re: wiped hard drive?

rich912 — Fri, 25 May 2007 21:03:08 GMT

I think that a Windows XP Repair is called for.

I'm uncertain whether this will solver your problem, but have a look at this LINK . Assuming that you have the option to repair XP Home then it may just resolve the problem.

Re: wiped hard drive?

onlyme — Fri, 25 May 2007 21:26:33 GMT

Hi Rich

Nope it didnt do a thing. Kept coming back to the 'which op syst..' menu and only worked on xp pro.
Assuming then that I have gone past the point of no return, can the pre-loaded vaio software be downloaded off the site. Also how do I now get my hard drive back the the 'day I purchased it' config.
Thanks for your time and patients

andy

Re: wiped hard drive?

Thalamus. — Fri, 25 May 2007 21:50:39 GMT

Hi Onlyme,

Unfortunately you can't download the pre-installed applications, however you can purchase a set of recovery disc's for your Vaio from Vaio-Link this should allow you to restore your Vaio back to the original OS, including all the pre-installed applications..

Re: wiped hard drive?

onlyme — Sat, 26 May 2007 05:11:20 GMT

Hi Thalamus

Thanks again for the reply. I was looking through the Vaio site and found the 3 pre installed softwares which says these were on the laptop at purchase, but need to be 'updated' once loaded...as zip files.. drivers - utilities -video .. are these the ones you mean?
Also what is the gaurantee if I purchase these disks it will put my system right as I dont want to start throwing money at disks which may not do the trick. Any idea how much they are please?
Thanks andy

Re: wiped hard drive?

kee-lo_ — Sat, 26 May 2007 10:16:46 GMT

They cost around £50