Vista activation Q, user replaceable drive? Reinstall disc? Warranty?

EDIT: By drive, I meant hard drive, sorry for the confusion!

I'm driving myself nuts trying to figure out what laptop to get. They all seem to have some major flaw...so I thought I'd ask some more questions about Sony (I've never owned a computer from them, but everything else I buy from them always lasts forever).

-I know on many Sony models the hard drive is not a user replaceable part-you have to take stuff apart and it voids the warranty (like the Macboo Pro). But do any models *have* easily replaced drives? I'd be looking at a 15 or 17" system, like probably the upgraded AR models when that comes out.

-Does Sony ship systems with Vista reinstall discs?

-Do you have to activate with Microsoft when reinstalling Vista on the same computer with the disc it came with? Dell ties stuff to the BIOS, so it never needs to be activated (and thus can be reinstalled as often as needed without worrying about it.

-And finally-how well does Sony honor their warranties? Apple and Dell seem to have fairly solid warranties (even with the occasional horror stories you get), so just wondered about Sony.

Thanks!

 

If they say they have modular optical drives, then it can be easily removable but from the sound of it, I don't think Sony has models with that. You probably can, but it'll be harder(not just screws, you may need to take off the bottom plates).

They ship with Vista Restore discs IIRC, which is what almost all notebooks have nowadays, it doesn't need to be activated.

As for warranties, it depends what happens to the notebook - of course there will be horror stories, but besides the potential of that, it should be standard.

 

Thanks! Some people over on the HP section were claiming all notebooks need to be activated-but I was pretty sure Dell's still don't, so it's good to hear Sony doesn't either, and it's good to hear they ship with a restore CD.

I guess I should have said regarding the drive that I meant the hard drive. I don't really care about the optical drive-if it breaks, I'll just have them fix it (or use an external if it's out of warranty). But being able to swap the hard drive is important to me (mostly so I don't have to send in something with personal/company data on it if it needs warranty service).

Here's something else I forgot to ask-do the models with HDMI all come with an HDMI->DVI adapter that works with normal monitors? I really want DVI, and apparently the new Dell systems don't have it anymore.