Making recovery disks/installing english vista on imported TZ

I ordered from PriceJapan on 7/15, well I ordered 7/13 and transferred the money to their local account here in Hong Kong on 7/14, then PJ verified it on 7/15. They got the TZ from SonyStyle japan 8/3 and shipped it same day. Due to the weekend DHL delivered it 8/6 morning. Whats been said about PriceJapan on the other thread is pretty accurate. Their emails are always very short, but replied fast. I had questions about the english vs japanese keyboard and they sent me photos comparing the two. After they verified payment I didn't hear from them until they got it from SonyStyle. I chose these guys over Conics because of their policy to never open the box. Who knows, Conics guy have spilled coke on the keyboard while installing english vista for you and you wouldn't know, so yeah. Oh I got the SSD/DVD driver combo without fingerprint sensor.

Theres been a few people asking how to make recovery disks before formatting.

Click on Start, Programs, then Scroll down until you see
VAIO AV ﾓｰﾄﾞﾗﾝﾁｬｰ　(AV Mode Launcher)
VAIO Media
VAIO Update 3
VAIO Video & Photo ｳｰﾃｨﾘﾃｨ (Utility)
VAIO ﾃﾞｰﾀﾘｽﾄｱﾂｰﾙ (Data Restore Tool)
VAIO ﾘｶﾊﾞﾘﾂｰﾙ (Recovery Tool)

The Recovery Tool is what you want. Click on that then you'd be able to choose the program itself or readme. When you mouse over the program you'd see that the path is under Program Files/Sony/VAIO Recovery Utility.
Click on it and there'd be some sort of security warning, press Continue, its the button on the left with the (C) on it. On the next screen there are 3 options, to create Recovery Disks is the first. Press OK, then Next, then you have the option of making 2 DVD-R or DVD+R (4.7GB) or 1 DVD-R or DVD+R thats double layer. I made 2 disks. The first disk created will be the Application Recovery disk, and the next being the System Recovery disk. The middle button on that screen is to Start making the disks, you will be prompted to insert the appropriate disk. Each disk probably takes around 10-15mins to make.

I'm about to delete the partition with diskpart then start installing english vista, but theres one thing I'd like to ask. On the SSD itself theres a folder named Drivers. I think it contains all the drivers? Why do people tell you to go download the TZ160C drivers from sonystyle US when they're all here? Whats the difference?

I'm only mediocre at Japanese but if theres anything you guys need translated I'd be glad to try and help.

Update: I've deleted the partition, formatted, and now have english Vista ultimate on it with everything working. AV mode, FN keys, Felica Port, the works. It sure runs a hell of a lot faster without the Sony bloatware.

 

I would want all products shipped from overseas to be opened and tested. I would hate to pay shipping to return a DOA item and then again to have it sent back to me.

Cheers for the information!