Get Rid of FW Recovery Partition or Not?

When I get my FW, I plan to do th esemi-clean isntall of Vista but I am wondering if I make recovery disk before doing the reinstall of Vista, wouold it be safe and wise to delete the recovery partition to gain more disk space. I use images to restore my laptops anyway but just in case, I would have the backup DVD's to set it back to factory default for any reason.

What are your thoughts on this idea of deleting the recovery partition? Are you going to do it or not and why and thanks.

Gary

 

(just listening in...)

 

If you make recovery discs theres no reason to keep the recovery partition unless you are concerned you're going to lose the discs.

 

Have never used Vista but if you need to add or remove components, I would assume needed files would all be stored on C drive since there is no Vista disk and Recovery disks is image of Vista plus bloatware. Am I right on this?

Gary

 

If you have the time and patience, I would actually use the recovery discs you've made to restore your laptop, before you delete the recovery partition... otherwise if there's been an error during burning your discs, you won't know about it until you really need them and then you'll have to order new copies from Sony, potentially leaving you without a means to restore for a while.

 

Yes, you are right about that extra step on restoring disks after you make them. Thanks.

Gary

 

I would do it like this: I would delete the recovery partition only if I need the diskspace, otherwise it may come in handy when you sell it later. Get a Vista SP1 DVD (available for download), do a totally clean install using the serial number on the bottom of the FW.

When installing drivers I like to not run setup.exe files but instead manually point my device manager to use the drivers at specified locations.

This way you'll get the fastest, cleanest install possible. For example: my XP SP3 installation has 19 background processes and boots in 26 seconds.

 

@PhilFlow,

Thanks for advice. But just a couple quesitons.

1. Where can Vista be downloaded?

2. Not familiar with Vista or Sony laptops (first one my FW) so could you clarify procedure for driver install on fresh Vista install such as location and order needed to be installed.

Sorry if these things seem self evident but I apreciate your input adn thanks.

Gary

 

1. Try here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=240320&highlight=download+vista Or search Google.

2. I suggest trial and error. I've noticed that the order on my Asus laptop hardly matters. I do VGA, wifi, functionkeys, etc.

If you'd like to have advice on the order anyway try consulting one of the clean install threads on the Sony forums (maybe for different models).

 

Thanks. I guess what I mean is, where will I physically find the drivers if they are bundled in the recovery partition image and thanks.

Gary

 

You can find them on Sony's support site: http://esupport.sony.com/perl/select-system.pl?PRODTYPE=1,24,26,66,9,70,5,72

You would have to download them before you do the clean install. I keep a folder on my secondary partition with the latest drivers and software.

 

Thanks and I will take a look and dowload them.

Gary

 

I hope when you'll do this on your future Z, you'll post a guide...coz it's exactly what I'm planning to do as well...and also I'm curious for which HDD you'll exchange the original one

 

As much as I'd like to buy a Z, I'm not sure if I will. As you can see from the post above my current laptop is still flying

 

Yep, that's why I would like to see your turbo flying with Z But it's true that I also reinstalled XP on my old TX with the fav hacks from my eXPerience and it's surprisingly much faster than I remember ever...my main reason for Z is that I don't want to touch my desktop PC anymore...

 

Phil, that is VERY bad advice on a Sony forum. The sequence of auxiliary apps and drivers is IMPORTANT on any Sony laptop, dating back to the old Z505 series machines.

To the OP. Take a look at some of the various clean install guides for other Sony models. (Including the one I wrote for the FZ series, in my signature line below.) You will see a thread of commonality in the sequence of things. Basically, there are some libraries that are needed BEFORE certain drivers are loaded. It will be pretty obvious after you look over some of the other guides. My guess is the FZ will be pretty close to the same as an FW one. Might I suggest YOU create a new FW guide as you go along. Feel free to excerpt sections of my guide if you'd like to help create a FW one.

Gary

 

While running Vista, if you put in DVD #1 of the set you made, a menu should pop up. It will tell you if you want to restore the whole machine you need to reboot with the DVD in the drive, but it will also give you an option to load individual drivers and applications. In regards to the drivers they may not be the most up to date versions so as Phil suggested a trip to the esupport.sony.com site will help you find the most recent ones. It will NOT however help you find all of the applications. The only place you will find some of them is on the recovery DVD.

Disclaimer: this is all from my experience with the FZ model. It is the same on some of the others, but unverified on the FW at this point in this forum. (Report back what you find!!!)

Gary

 

Thanks Gary. Yes, I hope someone who does this can give us what happened at each stage of reinstall. If not, I guess I will certainly bite the bullet when my comes in. Thanks.

Gary

 

Obtaining Vista installation files is covered here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228

Good to know. I agree it would be better to do it in order if there is an order available.

But when there is no order available I suggest trial and error. That's how I did it with XP on my TZ and SZ and it worked for me.

But maybe I am a special case, my mother always says so

 

Actually, I am not so sure about a specific order of the drivers themselves. But there is a need to make sure that the required libraries are in place before certain drivers are loaded. Hence the need for a "proper sequence". Some of the drivers rely on the libraries.

Gary

 

We still need a clear procedure to follow if possible that does not invovle a Vista DVD which I don't have but that will work in getting rid of most of the bloatware. Please provide some input from some of you folks who already are using your FWs. Did you just uninstall the bloat or did you try a semiclean or clean install?

I will try to just uninstall stuff or I will follow the below thread and see how this works unless I see soomething different. I really would rather not have to download and fiddle with a Vista disk but I might do that if needed. i need to get my laptop going as soon as possible to enjoy working on it but am willing to take enough time to get it optimized.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=146033

Thanks and again, I don't know if procedure in that thread works with FW or not.

Gary

 

The only two solutions available to you, if you have no Vista DVD, are a semi clean install or the manual uninstall of bloatware. (Actually, if you machine has the WAU - Windows Anytime Upgrade folder you can use it to create a Vista install DVD. There is a separate thread here about that.)

Gary

 

Gary,

Thanks again and I may jsut start by removing bloatware and see how that goes. If it does not work, then I will go from there and thanks.

Gary

 

Check out the WAU thread. If you have that directory it is a simple task to create a Vista install DVD.

Gary