Vaio Z12 arriving on tuesday, question though

Does the Z12 come with a recovery disc, or is it partitioned on the SSD's? If so, you think it'd be a good idea to just make a recovery disc off that drive and reformat everything into 1 partition? I'd like to leave as much capacity as possible for the SSD's to work effeciently, and because I paid for that space, I'd just like to have it and transfer everything to disc.

Lastly, for battery longevity should we charge it to capacity before first use and then use it till it reaches 0% life before charging it again? and how many times should I use this before I start using the battery power in a more non-chalant way i guess.

 

Yes use the Vaio Care application to create the recovery DVDs (2 required). Then you can reinstall Windows 7 using the product key on the bottom (which might require a call to MS to activate), or the product key for the OS that is already installed using ABR to get the product key.

When you run Windows Setup you have the option to delete the existing partitions.

Before doing all this I still recommend that you create a backup image of your system because the recovery DVDs might not restore everything that came with your notebook like the Adobe suite.

 

ok thanks, very informative. Any drivers that need to be preloaded so the RAID SSD's are recognized? Or the discs take care of that?

Also, any best practice info on the battery?

 

No windows sees the raid drives just fine. It's hardware* raided, so it's seamless to windows.

*It's not actually a hardware raid, but software raid that's controlled by the bios. If you're installing linux, you WILL have issues seeing the raided drives if they're raided. If they're unraided you're fine

 

The VAIO Recovery actually took 4 DVDs for me, or 2 dual-layered DVDs.

 

only took 2 single layer dvd's for me.

 

Recovery also took 4 single layer DVD's or my Z-128.

As for battery, most batteries now ship around 40-50% as that is the optimum charge for long term storage for longevity of max capacity. I would just use it right away and the manual I think suggests the same. I just don't bother to cycle my batteries anymore as I find they're quite good for several years after which if I've not bought a new laptop, I don't mind buying a second battery. (I had the extended thrown in so I already have two).

Learning the hard way, I've found I just don't bother repartitioning anymore. Just use a good backup solution.

The recovery DVD's do not include the install of Adobe (for my system) Elements so if I was to reformat, I'll lose two programs.

 

I read somewhere else on here that if you register your Adobe products online or something they'll provider you your serial #s and you'll be able to re-install them after a wipe? Maybe someone else can shed light on that, I don't have my Z yet.

 

Ya, I would also like to know how to backup adobe elements.