Sony Vaio-Z11/12 Windows 7 Factory Restore?

Hey everyone,

I have a small problem in that i am unable to restore my vaio to windows 7 factory condition anymore through vaio care. at first i was able to do this through a clean install of windows 7 but after i used the windows xp downgrade disc that came with the machine, i can't find the windows 7 restore option anymore in vaio care, all i get is the option to re-install old drivers and this asks me for a disc. the purple ASSIST button only brings me to a windows xp recovery, not windows 7.......

could the use of the windows xp downgrade disc have somehow blocked the recovery partition from booting at all? cause when i re-installed a clean copy of windows 7, i see it as still there and i didn't format it or delete it....

thanx for any help guys

 

How can a windows xp system "recover" to 7? Do you see the recovery partition in windows xp's drive management tool? Why don't you just take the recovery discs you made in windows 7?

 

This was how it went:

1. The original installation was win7 professional
2. I performed a fresh install of win7 ultimate
3. I used the vaio care program to restore to win7 professional
4. I used the included xp disc to downgrade to xp to see if it was faster
5. It wasnt much faster so now i reinstalled a fresh copy of win7
6. But since the fresh copy is missing some crucial drivers i want to restore to factory conditions.... But now i can't through the vaio care program anymore.

When i first got the machine i didnt make a set of recovery discs since i thought such an expensive laptop shouldnt be prone to problems very often.
Do you have any solutions? Any would be helpful!

 

just go to the sony website and download all the driver packages to your hard drive then install them manually, this will take all day to do because there are so many. I made a list of the most important ones in your other thread, but there are even more required than that to make the laptop function correctly.

 

Cost of computer has absolutely nothing to do with having a problem. Let's face it, even computers that cost tens of thousands, even millions of dollars (yes they do exist) have problems with hardware failing, operating systems crashing, bugs and/or viruses infesting them in a way that requires restoring the system, etc.

In any case, if you were going to start experimenting with different operating systems, at that point something should have triggered in your mind that you don't have the recovery disks...

I am assuming you tried booting to the recovery option (F10 I think?) Also, I seem to recall that within a certain period of time from when you bought the Vaio, Sony makes available the recovery disks for free (or at least they used to). After that they charge you $48 or so: https://servicesales.sel.sony.com/e...t=989200885&sessionId=lR7V2MxWTuuKErccN4xMBiQ

 

While it is booting, press F10 - may take you a couple of tries. That will get you into the restore partition and should do what you're asking.
After it does so and your back to factory conditions - suggest you make your restore DVDs.