Windows 7 Clean Install Instructions for CW Series

Well, personally, I never leave a recovery partition intact. I always start with completely wiping the drive and then installing a squeeky clean Windows 7 version. With downloaded drivers from the Sony Support Site/other places, it has worked every time for me, absolutely no problems. But here are some expanded directions for installing the most up-to-date NVIDIA drivers. I wrote this quite a while back, but have since updated it, reflecting the "merged" notebook and desktop driver stack starting with version 256.

 

Thanks for the reply XGX!
Well i just installed all the drivers from the second post and things went kinda ok, though i cant install the nvdia driver you have above! it keeps giving me an error and then when i restart it just installs windows driver for it.
is this normal?

 

I've installed the Sony parser, utilities, etc... and my hotkeys don't work. What's up with that??

 

I think you need to install the utilities for the hotkeys to work

 

Yep, and "Sony Shared Library" must come first. And to answer your earlier question, can you get to the nvidia control panel from right clicking on the desktop?

 

Yes XGX I can get to the nvida control panel by right clicking on my desktop. does that mean the driver is installed correctly?
I did finally install a windows driver for it. I think it was even detected on fresh system install.

 

Yep If the control panel shows properly, then the driver installed fine. Sometimes Windows 7 just likes to complain, and make you think something didn't install correctly, when in fact all the driver files got written to the system perfectly fine.

 

Thanks! much apprichated
Hopefully I wont have wifi problems again this time. system seems to be running much better then my first reinstallation

 

that second link *64 bit for the moddified inf doesnt work. any updates?

 

Just right click on the link then "save as"

You can also get the updated driver from Sony here

 

Hello guys
Still can not run or install button and VAIO Media Gallery in Sony CW27FX with Win 7 Ultimate 64 bits, if someone already has, please help me.

 

Sorry about doing this, but I still have this issue, and I really want a clean install. At least I can offer some kind of gift (sharing a hotfile.com account)

 

The drivers you have on your flash drive, they are probably compressed executables, therefore Windows can't read the ".inf" driver files. In all honesty, it shouldn't be asking you that, unless you have installed an SSD or something that requires drivers to make Windows bootable on the main volume. What model is your CW, and what is your primary drive (SSD, or HDD)?

 

Thanks for your kind answer...

I uncompressed the drivers using a very good software (uniextract). My model is CW27FX (the only difference with CW25 is the BD-Player and the Screen Resolution= 1600x900) and is coming with a HDD.

Do you have any clue?

 

Most likely its your OS installer (USB drive). I've done fresh install (Win 7 Pro) on my CW using a USB thumb drive several times with no issue. Try making another USB drive Windows 7 installer.

PS: Mine is CW27 too.

 

Actually I've never had UniExtract actually extract all the contents of the Sony Driver Packages. Sony signs them and most programs like UniExtract can't even do anything with them... like at all. If you want to try this, here is another way to get the driver files and anything else from a Sony Package that you need...

Normally the path of Temp folder will be
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp</username>

In order to locate temporary folder in windows 7, follow the below steps:

• Click Start, in the search box, type CMD.
• Right click on CMD and choose run as Administrator.
• In the command prompt type ECHO %Temp%.

This displays the full path of the actual temp folder and you can follow the path and identify its location by copying the entire path and pasting it in Run command or in search options.

Now that you've located that folder, order them the most recently modified files to the top of the list.

Now, run the Sony Driver Package installer, and let it unpack to the temp folder. You don't have to install anything. Now look for the most recently modified FOLDER. It will be really oddly named, but it will contain everything un-packed and in a nice folder. Now that can be done for any Sony Driver or Software package (or at least, I've never had that method fail me).

Also LOUSYGREATWALLGM makes a GREAT point. Try the USB installer method. It is really pleasant.

 

I want to do a clean install on my laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium. I downloaded the link of the ISO file from the first post. My question is, do I burn the ISO image directly on a DVD or I need to extract the image first then burn the files on DVD?

Sorry it's my first time to use an ISO image.

Also, how big is that file? My download is already complete and file size I get is 1GB. I read from the first post that it is somewhere around 3GB, but I already download the image a couple of times and I got the same result (1GB).

Thanks...

 

You just burn the ISO straight to disk or use the USB Utility from Microsoft. I'm getting a 3GB file from that link so you might want to try a different download method, like Firefox or a dedicated download manager:

 

Thanks for the reply XGX2007.

I tried to download the link from the first post of this forum. I tried to download it using firefox (without DL manager) and Download Accelerator Plus but both gave me the same result, the download was completed with 1GB of file size. I tried to download it a couple of times but I always get 1GB of file. What do you think is the reason for this? Do you have other links where I can download the image?

Thanks again for the help...

 

That's really interesting that you keep getting 1GB as the completed file size. If you don't mind me asking, are you based in the US or some other part of the world? Here is an alternate method of obtaining boot media. Scroll to the bottom of the first post for ISO images, or you could try the other way. That link will get you a Windows 7 ISO image that has to be modified in order to be able to install Windows 7 HP x64, otherwise it installs Windows 7 Professional x64. Here is what I get in FF... Have you tried Internet Explorer? I HATE Internet Explorer with a passion, but sometimes it's what works...

 

I'm currently deployed here in Iraq. I will try to download again using internet explorer and I will also try the new link you gave.
How can I modify it so that i'll be able to install windows 7 HP x64?

Thanks..

 

That maybe the issue right there. They may have bandwidth caps in place to prevent network issues over there. That would be the most logical explanation to me... anyways.. If you download the ISO from that linked page, it should have instructions right below the download links for how to remove the "ei.cfg" file that restricts what type of installation it does. Remove that file and it will let you install whatever build you have a matching key for. It identifies what version by the key, as every ISO has the potential to install Basic all the way to Ultimate. If they do have caps in place though, it's going to be quite difficult to get the ISO image or the build-able pieces at all. There's another method than getting an ISO image, but the other way the two pieces are both over 1GB per piece, so that wouldn't work either.

EDIT: If you are US Military, thank you for what you do!

 

Im trying to do a reinstallation on my CW I 3 Model # VPCCW21FX and am facing many problems with the drivers.
All of them show an error after installation. I didnt experiance this many erros the last time i did my clean install!
I have even attemeted to reinstall the originals from Vaio Care but it just fails..
The only thing that I have done prior to installing the drivers is the Windows update.
Any help would be much apprichated

 

fuligin: I too am getting some compatibility error messages after installing the drivers but ignored it (dunno how Win 7 sees it as incompatible ) and continued installing all the drivers (in order). When done installing all the drivers, go to device manager to see if you have successfully installed all the necessary drivers (no unknown devices). I have been using this drivers (first page) since I got my CW27 and it work flawlessly.

PS: Install all the drivers first before Windows Update.

Good Luck!

 

LOUSYGREATWALLGM: thanks for the reply.
I tried once again and ignored the errors as you recomended. seems to be working fine now.
I realy drives me nuts since you dont know if they have really installed or not. I havent had the same reinstallation experiance with this laptop on all 4 occassions that i have tried to reinstall!
Some of them even gave me error messages saying its only for vista and windows 7!! go figure
well its up and running for the time being.
Any way of saving an image of it for future use...i have done a system restore point.

 

Glad it finally worked

Yep. I too am was confused when I got that message and took me awhile to figure that its the Win 7 going nuts
Just make sure you have all the necessary drivers installed (device manager) and you are good to go.

PS: I don't use system restore since its not very reliable. I use the Image backup instead.

 

I dont understand why there are so issues regarding the Splashtop.

Once, you are done installing the fresh copy of windows. If you have recovery disc, you can install the web access from it.

Else, the copy of the web access is saved in the disc 3 image as per your laptop customized version.

Whenever I install windows, I restore drivers from the recovery disc and web access. It can install over windows and you can boot it by pressing web button.

 

I included a download link at the end of my guide, but some people don't realize that the same version that works with the CW, will work for other SplashTop enabled Sony notebooks such as the NW, and E-series.

 

Sony updated the audio drivers on 09-07-2010 Sony eSupport - VPCCW18FX - Software Updates & Drivers

 

So they did... Updated Along with a few more...

 

Hi there. Can anyone help me with Vaio Recovery Partition? I had few problems with partition table and MFT, but now everything is ok. Except one thing. My Vaio Recovery Partition must by unhidden to F10 key work. And then I can see this partition in Windows Explorer. When I change it to hidden, F10 key isn't working. Can anyone tell me why is it so? And what to do next...

 

Why does Sony list two SATA drivers?

Sony eSupport - VPCCW18FX - Drivers & Software

Sony eSupport - VPCCW18FX - Drivers & Software

 

It worked!

F10 works and recovery partition is hidden in Windows 7.

Thanks a lot!

 

I have a Sony Vaio VPCCW1S1E laptop. It came from Europe fyi. Do I need to follow the first post or the second post? Because the 2nd has GT330m Graphics card when I have a GT230m Graphics card.

 

Excuse my ignorance, but I've backed up all my data, and I've burned the windows 7 iso on a dvd. I've downloaded all the drives and put them on an external hard drive .

What's next?

 

As I was backing up my data. I noticed that only 457gb out of 500gb on the C: drive was visible.

Does this mean that Windows 7 and Sony bloatware is taking up 43gbs of space?

 

when VAIO logo after power on appears pres few times F10

start recovery

enjoy new system