Sony Z - Recovery Partition + Buffer

So if anyone saw my other thread I am trying to do a fresh install of win7, what I discovered is Sony does not support win7 Ultimate. So that leaves me with two choices. Give up, and use the image discs I made to recover to factory... or press ahead and attempt a professional install.

However, I read something that, while not clear, seemed to imply the majority of the partition Sony creates on the Z is actually empty buffer space for the SSDs (along the logic that filling them is a big-no-no). If this is correct I will get over my hatred of partitions, admit defeat, and reimage.

If all that space is truly used up and not a buffer in any way, I may have to attempt a professional install, though after the time wasted on this ultimate install I am feeling less and less motivated to try it.

Thanks.

EDIT: I did not think to check when I started, just how big is the partition?

 

No ideas on this? I really need to use my days off today and tomorrow to get this done!

 

The empty partition is just the recovery partition. Z supports ultimate just fine. Assuming you have a legit copy of ultimate, why not just enter your key into the anytime upgrade applet?

 

Many of Sony's drivers and software packages will not install on Windows 7 Ultimate, most importantly Sony Shared Library (which is required for many of their other drivers/software). Installation gives an error that the install is for "Windows Vista, Windows 7," so I went to the page for the actual Shared Library download and it does say it is not compatible on Ultimate.

Though I question the knowledge of the Sony reps (it took about 10 minutes to get them to answer my questions, he kept asking if I had any questions and I was like, "Yea, the two I started this conversation with that you have yet to answer!"), they confirmed that it will not work on Ultimate and that Sony basically does not care because the Vaio is designed to run only on the operating system it was supplied with.

 

The Sony rep is wrong. Irregardless, why don't you just enter your ultimate key into anytime upgrade?

 

Install Windows 7 Ultimate and show me a screen shot of you installing Shared Library- I am telling you it is impossible, the rep says it, the website says it, the installer itself says it.

Sony Shared Library page, click "See all applicable models..." now look at the VPCZ124GX and Ultimate and you will see a big red "X".

You are missing my point, if I use anytime upgrade I get Windows 7 Ultimate, but am still stuck with the recovery partition and then also put future updates at potential risk as Sony is completely obviously not interested, at this point, in supporting Ultimate. So I gain nothing really.

 

I'm not missing the point, it works fine. You are doing something wrong.

Anyhow, if you MUST get rid of the recovery partition then delete the partition and extend your primary partition with a linux live cd or hiren's bootcd or a gparted live cd. You don't need to blow away windows to do that.

I've had ultimate on Z's before. I'm currently running my Z on Win7 Enterprise for work (which is basically ultimate and also not listed on Sony's site).

 

Yes Ultimate works just fine, but you cannot install all of Sony's drivers and software. Like I said, I think I have the machine working (everything seems to function) but at a risk I am not willing to take. I am moving next week and this will be my only computer, I will not have my desktop to screw around on if I have any problems, even minor ones could end up being a big deal.

What functionality I am missing because I do not have things like Shared Library installed, I cannot tell- but I do not want to find out in three weeks when I am SOL.

Unless someone has some magic answer, what it comes down to now is reimaging with the discs, or trying a professional install. The only reason I want a fresh install is I hate partitions, its not like there is a ton of bloatware to remove or anything- so is the 10gb or so of the partition worth all this headache? I am thinking no.

If I were not moving I would experiment with some of these things, get rid of the partition, mess around with professional, and then do the Anytime Upgrade.

 

I'm telling you what the answer is, the Sony utilities install on ultimate just fine! If it's not working for you then you are doing something wrong! The red x on the compatibility pages for SSL is because yours specific config was not offered with ultimate, therefore it's not in their model database with ultimate. What you WILL see on that same page are other Z12 configs showing a nice green checkbox for ultimate.

Perhaps you downloaded a 32 bit version of the library and ate trying to install it on a 64 bit o/s or vice versa?

 

One more thing, unless you really must have that 10th extra space I would strongly recommend against erasing the recovery partition. It comes in very handy when you need it.

 

Maybe I will give it another go. I downloaded all the drivers after doing an auto-detect on the Sony support site.

The partition seems unnecessary when I can just use recovery discs.

 

Worst case scenario if the driver is install is failing due to ultimate (unlikely), then use universalextractor to extract the package and install it from the .msi file (bypassing the model check).

Z is VERY finicky with recovery media. I've made good recovery discs on several occasions and had recovery fail. I'd keep the partition, if you choose not to then at least make a couple sets of recovery media.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the help. If I were not relying on the Vaio as I move across the world next week, I would enjoy playing around with some of these ideas and options. But, since I am, I opted to use the recovery CD's I made. I will live with the partition, and if it is as you say (with media being so finicky)- it will be worth it.

I wish I had some more time so I could have played around with it some more, I wonder if in a different order if the Shared Library would have installed without incident, or if I would have had to extract it or what.

Thanks again.

Not all was lost, I knew this was going to be required as I have some tricky software and hardware to install (actually was way simpler than on Vista), and so while I screwed around with it getting it to work, I knew I was clogging things up- so now that I know how it all installs, I will be able to do it the one simple way and keep things fresh- so a reformat/recovery was going to be necessary anyway.