FW21e - recovery software crashes, can't make DVD's

Hello, it's my first post here and I have a problem.
I just got a new FW21e and it all seems to be working more or less fine. I'm preparing to downgrade to xp but I am unable to create the recovery DVD(s) with the VAIO recovery center software. As soon as I click start for any of the applications the program simply stops working. I've been looking for a partition or a folder containing something that might look like what I need but I haven't found anything.
I posted on the 'official' 'Club VAIO' forum but no-one has replied.
Has anyone had a similar experience?
Is there anyway to circumvent the problem.
Any help would be very much appreciated as I cannot wait to properly install xp and start working.
Thank you
Tonio.

edit k, now I have found an 11.48 GB partition on the hard drive. Is that the recovery content? How do I access it? Can I be sure it would work if I needed to reinstall the original configuration? I have found a nameless icon in the explorer sitting alongside my c: but when I click on it it says 'G: refers to a location that is unavailable'.
Thank you.

 

ihave fw21e too. iam planning to downgrade to.
are you pleased that you are using xp right now?
did you have crashes when you were using vista?
whats the reason of your downgrading?
thanks in advance for your answers brother.

 

I've not had a crash myself on my FW in vista, except on a few programs, but it was not a vista issue, but a program fault, that the maker knows about but is not fixing for some reason.

I am not sure why it is crashing, have you tried leaving it on for 10-15 min? it takes a while for the dvds to burn, depending on what one you are using, single layer vs double layer.

I am curious to why you want to downgrade? is it because you do not like vista? If that is a reason, then fair enough, but give it a chance, a week or 2, then delete it if you do not like it, I was anti vista myself until I began using it.

 

Hey, I still haven't downgraded to xp since I haven't managed to make these £%$ dvds, the program just crashes straight away as soon as I hit any key. I want to change to xp for the simple reason that it is faster. I would go for linux if I had the time to master it and if it could run all the softwares I need. The fact that internet explorer of all programs keeps crashing as well doesn't quite sell Vista to me either.
To be fair though everything else is working fine.
Thank you for the answers, too bad we haven't a way to get through this.
I think I'm going to post a new thread to get that backup because there should be a way to access the backup partition.

 

I'm doing some more digging since I haven't been able to contact sony's support (anyone else experiencing problems with their contact form?) It seems I'm supposed to have partseal.exe to be able to run the vaio recovery software. Partseal is supposed to be in C:\Windows\Sonysys\VAIO Recovery\ but my sonysys folder is empty. Anyone else has an empty folder but managed to run the recovery software? Any thoughts on the issue??
Any help would be greately appreciated.
Any idea on how I can contact sony's support would be appreciated too. I cant get through their e-mail contact form. I'm identified by my serial number but when I click the send button nothing happens.

 

I only have a folder called docs in that sonysys folder and nothing else, but I was able to run the recovery discs.

 

Ascaris, can you find partseal.exe anywhere on your system??

 

Nope, I did a search for the file, and nothing was found.

 

Right, I guess partseal hasn't got anything to do with it then.
stuck, stuck, restuck. Somehow, if I manage to get through to Sony's support, I doubt they'll come up with a solution to the problem.
There must be a way to access that hidden partition! Looking around didn't get me anywhere.

 

Hi, I have been experiencing the exact same problems as you tonioqueria.
There seems to be no way to get around the crash. If you get a reply from Sony, please enlighten us

 

Right. So I got a standard email back from Sony boy:
"Your computer shipped with a partition reserved on the hard disk drive that contains everything required to restore your VAIO back to its factory state. To access this partition, repeatedly tap F10 when you can see the VAIO logo onscreen, and press enter if prompted to 'Select operating system for VAIO recovery environment'. Then, simply follow the prompts and select 'Full recovery' or 'C drive recovery' when offered the option. Please be aware of the fact that this process will result in the loss of all data on the drive, so you should back up any documents you wish to preserve before you do this.
"
Then going on to say that if the partition is misisng or has been corrupted, recovery disks can be purchased from them for about U$70.

Ok so not sure there has been that much progress. The F10 option is what is recommended everywhere anyway. AND! When I was looking around (can't find it now) I found two or three posts of people who have tried the F10 path of wisdom only to have their laptop more or less bricked. The idea is that they had their recovery ding dong somehow malfunctioning and since F10 could not access the partition it just rebooted ... only to go back into F10 ad vitam eternam. Result: the laptop had to be sent to sony for repairs. so byebye precious.
Right, so you have been warned. I can't try it right now because I have so much back up to do before going for the F10, but I guess I will have to give it a go. First I'll burn the slipstreamed XP install CD just in case it can bypass an eventual crash of the darling VAIO.
I'll give it a go next week-end. If you don't hear from me, it'll mean it WASN't the right solution!
Sush, did you install many things before trying to burn the DVD's and it might be, somehow (!?), a software conflict?
I had installed very few things: firefox and an antivi... hold on! I'm going to uninstall AVAST and see if I'm lucky. I'll get back to you.
Sush can you tell me which software you installed before trying to burn the recovery?
Thank you.

 

Thanks for the info~

Oh I see. Um, I installed firefox, AVG, itunes, VLC, MSN live and Photoshop. Since I didn't have the DVDs when I first set up my laptop, I didn't create the recovery disks straight away.

Good luck with your downgrade!

 

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