Windows 7 on Vaio Z - Procedure

I installed the 32 bit version of Windows 7 (Build 7000), because the 64 bit Windows 7 requires you to have EFI+GPT instead of EFI+MBR, which is what we have on the Z690. I don't think there's a way to create a GPT partition on a MBR disk without reformatting the entire HDD. Some people have claimed that they did in fact install 64 bit Windows 7 without reformatting to GPT, but I didn't get it to work. Sorry

Continue on...

1. Defrag your main partition.
I don't recommend using the one that came with Vista, it is the slowest defragmentation tool I've ever used. Try AusLogics Disk Defrag, the trail version works fine. the point of defragging your disk is to move ALL the data to the outer rim of your harddrie, so you can shrink your vista partition without losing any data.

What to do next depends entirely on luck... If you've been using the Z for quite a long time, or you have stored a lot of data on your harddrive. There's a good chance that "Computer Management" won't let you shrink your current partition because you may have system filings and MFT scattered all over the harddrive, and normal defrag tools like AusLogics can't move them.

2. Go to Start -> Right click on My Computer -> Select Manage OR just open up the Start menu and type "Computer Management" in the search bar. Either way, it would get you to Computer Management tool.
When you have Computer Management open, click "Disk Management" under "Storage" on the left. Then you would be able to see your disk with all the partitions it has on there. Right click on your Vista partition and select "Shrink Volume".

If you are lucky, you will see some pretty large number in "Size of available shrink space in MB". Congratulations! you can skip to step 5.

If you are not so lucky, you will see either zero or an extremely small number (anything smaller than 16 384 MB/ 16 GB, the minimum system requirement for Windows 7. Although Windows 7 only takes around 11 gb after installing all the drivers, it is still better to have more storage for you to install additional softwares) shown in " "Size of available shrink space in MB". But there's no need to worry, it was exactly what happened to me. Just follow step 3.

3. Now, what you need is not just the normal everyday defrag tool. You need something more powerful, that can also move your system filing and MFT areas. I recommend PerfectDisk 10 (download it here), it is what I used. It is only a 15-day trial, but it work perfectly fine. You only really need it for a couple hours, you will delete it long before it expires in 15 days.

4. Run PerfectDisk 10. Do a SmartPlacement defrag on your Vista partition and also check the "Boot time" box for your vista partition. It may take a while depends on how much stuff you have on your harddrive. Restart your computer when you are done with the SmartPlacement defrag (make sure you have the "boot time" box checked), and the PerfectDisk will do another defrag specifically on your system files during boot up.

Check "Computer Management" again after the boot time defrag is done. Now, all or most of free space on your harddrive should show up as shrinkable.

5. Now, you are finally able to shrink the Vista partition and create a Windows 7 partition. Depends on what version of Vista you have, you many need to go into Safe Mode for this. Home Premium won't give me permission to do it in normal mode no matter what I try (I heard people with Ultimate don't have this problem).

If you also have Vista Home Premium, restart your laptop again and press “F8” during boot up, and go into Safe Mode. It doesn't really matter which safe mode you choose. Then everything's pretty straight forward from here, just open up "Computer Management" again, click "Disk Management" under "Storage". Right click on your main/Vista partition, select "Shrink". Type in how many gb your want to shrink (n gb x 1024= the number you want to enter). Just make sure the number you type is smaller than the one that's displayed on the top. Click “OK” when you are done (I made my windows 7 partition 50 gb, although I wish I had made it larger since it works so well that I’m using it as my primary OS now).

6. After that, you should be able to see a box of free space separated from your main partition. Right click on the newly freed up area and select “Format”. Just assign a letter and wait for it to finish format (I didn’t bother formatting it. All I did was assigning a letter to it. Both ways work fine).

7. Now, just insert your Windows 7 build 7000 disc, and make sure you select “Custom” when you install, and select your new empty partition.


Good luck. Hope this helps. I'm sure there are easier ways of doing it. But this is what I did and it worked. Let me know if you have any more questions.

See the thing for most of us is that we can't create a GPT partition without cleaning out all the data the disk... There are numerous ways to do this if you are starting with a fresh disk, since you don't have to worry about lossing data. It doesn't really matter which option you use because you are starting with a new HDD anyway. But your way sure looks easy.

Thanks for the tip anyway.

 

Jparity provided you with a good reply already, but I thought I would contribute this link. It worked smoothly for me setting up dual boot on my Z36GD (Asian flavor of Z69).

I love W7! (Build 7068 64 bit) There is a little trouble with video codecs in media player, but I am happy to use something else for now (not a huge video guy). Photoshop works great, as does the other graphic features of other apps and the OS. Sure the new laptop helps too! (just bought my Z and it is a big upgrade from previous machine)

Still trying to trim down the start up time...about 80 seconds rights now from power on until the cursor stops clocking at the desktop.

Would love to hear about start-up time for others and how you have tweaked it! I have not made any changes yet...maybe some Vista-like changes I should make to certain services, etc.
Cheers,
David

 

80 seconds? Really? Mine's around 40-45. 35 from pressing the power button to the login screen, 10 sec from there to everthing finish loading up. However, I'm running 32 bit Windows 7 (build 7000). Didn't really tweak it. Just went into msconifg and unchecked itunes, quicktime, and stuff like that.

My Spec:
Z690 CTO
Intel P9600
4 gb ram
320 gb 7,200 rpm Hitachi 7k320

 

I ran a series of tests this afternoon and was getting results that more closely resemble your reports (45-50 seconds). I also only made a couple minor tweaks to services & start-up, but not much (turned off workstation, adobe crap that was pre-loading, etc.). Still wish it was quciker! Reports from users with SSD are boot-ups can been 25-30 seconds.

Wondering what aps your are running? Shouldn't matter much, but as mentioned I saw that Adobe was trying to preload somethings. Photoshop is slower to open after the change, but would rather wait 2-3 seconds extra at that point than during boot-up.

With 7 I am running:
Office 2007 - all in (Project, Visio, etc.)
Adobe CS 4
RocketDock
AllTunes
VLC

 

Jparity, thanks so much for the detailed info.
I'm running Perfect disk again.
Before I was showing only 1023 mb of "size available to shrink" after running Perfect disk it went down to 611mb. I'm running it again and hoping something changes this time.

I will let you know.


Update:
I'm now down to 194mb free. I have 10 "exluded" blocks near the end of the harddrive (3 to last...). This with perfectdisk. I am somewhat stuck at this point.

 

Done, installed the 64bit version 7068 on the z690!
Thanks a lot.
Jparity I was getting your error (with the 64bit version) but I just rebooted took out the cd and pressed ESC many times, selected my installation and then put the CD back in.

Also I had to disable system restore (now re enabled) and memory dump to defrag my harddrive and remove the last chuncks from the end.

Thanks for all your help!

 

FYI...shaved another couple seconds off boot-up time by selecting "no gui boot". More here.

 

Greets from Germany to everyone.
I'm following this thread (and the similar ones in this forum) for a few weeks now.
I installed Win7 for several times on my Z21MN. Not a great deal at all.
I tested builds 7000, 7057 and 7068. It's all the same with the Sony stuff, it isn't working at all (and I didn't won't to tinker that much, like disabling UAC and so one).

Finally I decided to install only all drivers including the NVIDIA Graphics driver. So I got an working Win7 I am satisfied with except for one issue.

First the things that are working for me:
- Stamina/speed switch isn't working with a running system. But that's not a problem to me. When rebooting using the other Stamina/speed switch position, Windows switches the Graphics indeed. That's enough flexibility for my purpose.
- Volume keys are working perfectly in both modes (Stamina and speed). At least, there is no display message. But never mind, it's working.
- Unfortunately, brightness keys aren't working at all. But I'm not playing around with brightness all the day. Still I can setup brightness in the Win7 energy management dialogue. Again that's sufficient for my requirements.
- In general I can do without the Sony Stuff like Power Management or Control Center (btw: don't know if already mentioned: just after installing Sony Shared library which is, unfortunately, mandatory for the further Sony stuff the problem with the brightness and volume keys occurs. So the shared library is the evildoer)

Now the issue I dislike most and haven't managed get working yet:

At home my Z21 is plugged to an LG 23" TFT via HDMI port. Not a great deal using Windows Vista. Set to speed mode I can switch on my Z keeping it's display closed when booting vista. I hear the welcome sound, then vista seems to be loading the nvidia driver, it is recognising the TFT at the HDMI port and is switching the display settings. So I have the output on my TFT right from the logon screen.

But using Windows 7, this procedure isn't working anymore (no matter, which build you're using). When a HDMI cable is plugged in, the graphics driver isn't initialised properly (in this case, the Stamina/Speed LED isn't flashing at all). For a second you see the output on the Z's display (in 800x600 resolution or sth. else). Then the display turns black and there's nothing you can do getting the output back to any display. All you can do is reboot.

The "switching to the external panel" only works, if I let the TFT plugged out until the logon screen appears (and the speed LED turns on). Then I can plug in the HDMI cable and windows is switching the display output to the external TFT.

So that's the only issue that's bothering me. For me plugging out an in the cable with every boot is a severe lack of comfort.

By the way, once the external display is initialised properly, I can switch to and resume from Standby or Hibernate without any problems. Display settings are maintained.

Obviously it is the Z's nvidia driver, which is making me trouble on Win7. Every driver alternative, I guess you know already, isn't working at all, neither the one offered by Windows Update nor the Win7 beta driver from nvidia.

Is there anyone else, who had to do with this problem? Or maybe I'm the only one, who is bothered that much because of this issue.

Best regards,
Nepomuk

 

There are no SLI or ATI flavors of the Z, but anyhoo...

SLI does indeed work, but not with the WDDM 1.1 driver that Microsoft provides. I'm on Win 7 build 7068 x64 with a EVGA 295 GTX. Works like a dream with the Vista x64 version of Forceware 185.66. The drivers are available here:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Forceware-185.66-Vista---64-bit-Beta-download-2236.html

 

Same problem here. Glad to know it isn't just me. I have to pull the HDMI cable to get the machine to properly reboot into speed mode. Does the same when logging off/on.

I guess in a world of glitches coming from running a beta OS with drivers that weren't specifically designed for it, it isn't a horrible problem to have.

BTW, Win7 fully boots in 35 seconds for me with a bunch of gadgets, finger scan and Norton Internet Security 2009. I have a Patriot 256gb v3 SSD.

 

2 newbie questions here.. can I install win 7 on a portable hard drive, boot from it and not affect the C drive at all?? for testing i don;t want it to interfere with the original os.
the other question is: would I be able to use the sony recovery or stored drivers and programs which are located on the protected part of the drive C in case i install win 7 on the C drive?

 

Yes, you can boot from an external drive. Make sure you change the boot order in the BIOS.

Additionally, you can run the installer from an external device, a Seagate 7200.? 320GB in a USB enclosure. I upgraded my desktop to build 7077 and did a fresh install of it on the Z. This being said, the speed of the install was indeed faster.

 

I found a newer version of the bluetooth widcomm drivers. The version I installed from Sony was 6.2.5600 (BRDBLT-00166108-64). This version worked, but gave me the cannot start the stack error.

Device Manager shows version 6.2.8200 eventhough the installer is 6.2.8500 and is apparently beta with support for Windows 7. It has both x86 and x64 flavors. It upgraded my previous install, but I didn't try it on a new build. If it fusses at you, install the Sony version first and upgrade.

http://forum.anycom.com/index.php?topic=2476.0

Works flawlessly so far and no stack errors.

 

I can't seem to get the following working on Win7 on my Z690:
1. GPS
2. WWAN Broadband Device (doesn't even get recognized)
3. DVD Drive

Any suggestions?

 

You have to install the Gobi UNDP-1 Driver and SmartWI packages to get the GPS and WWAN to work.

Not sure about the DVD. Should show up. How did you install Win7 if it wasn't working? A USB drive? Maybe you mean the DVD playback software?

 

Hi all
Any one got build 7100 aka rc1 working with all drivers and functions like: speed/stamina, hdmi, etc...?

In other words is this build any better than older ones in regards to drivers integration?

 

hell yeah, much better. Everything works great for me. Stuff that was broken or half way broken in the previous public beta 7000 build works great now. even comes with the driver for the fingerprint reader built in. all the FN keys work when i was having trouble in the past. It rocks, I fell in love with my Z all over again

 

What drivers do i have to install? do i follow the same procedure as doing a Vista clean install?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=293880

or do some drivers come integrated with 7 ?

 

How about following the instructions in this thread perhaps

I'm on 7100, but did an upgrade from the base Vista x86. Screen Brightness adjustment via FN keys are aren't working in Speed mode as per normal. Everything else is great, save a problem with installing Norton Internet Security 2009. This stoped working in build 7077 for me and carried to the RC.

Qwaarjet: Are you saying you have ALL functionality?

 

FYI for anyone who was having trouble with Win7 and audio device detection through the HDMI... well I couldn't getting it working a couple of months ago (neither build 6956 or 7100), even with the latest Realtek audio drivers at the time.

I just updated the audio driver to the Realtek driver R2.22, released 2009/4/20 and now i get audio device detection

Anyway, seems like they fixed something there.

Find them here: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

 

Oh yeh, and that means I now only have 2 remaining problems:

1) brightness hotkeys in speed
2) unlocking virtualization

I know there is a way to do number 2, but it looks complex and scary!

See here if you dare: http://www.linuxformat.gr/?q=conten...ualization-technology-vt-sony-vaio-laptop-and

 

oh oops, sorry.... don't have the brightness FN keys working in speed mode either, hadn't noticed since i never use speed mode

 

hey everyone, I'm getting my VAIO Z690 in the mail in a couple of days now and I just had a question in regards to the RC of 7. I've been running an earlier beta of seven for months now and I love it. I want to put RC1 on my Z, but I'm wondering if I still had to go through all the steps in the first post or if the release candidate made it less of a hassle, (i.e. had more drivers already available or available automatically through windows update.) For anyone that just recently put the release candidate on their Z, what methods did you follow? What did you experience? Thanks everybody.

 

From my experience it was basically the same procedure (I just follow the Vista steps on the Vista clean install thread), except that this time around Windows found some draft version of a new Nvidia driver automatically, which seemed to work fine for hot switching, so I didn't mess around with it as much as I did for the earlier build.

Also, get the latest Realtek driver from their website.

What Nvidia driver are other people using? I find that the switching is a little touch and go: if the video memory is bogged up it doesn't seem to switch over, and switching from Nvidia to Intel is harder than Intel to Nvidia.

 

Sorry, that method only works for old style BIOSes. It won't work on the Z. There is no way to unlock VT on the Z at the moment.

 

Yeh, I was just reading the InsydeH2O Hardware Virtualization thread and seems like there's no leads whatsoever on this

 

Where is everyone getting the x64 drivers they're using for Windows 7? Will the drivers at http://www.vaio-link.com/os/vista/64bit/ do the trick?

 

Yes judgefargo can you give the link with the drivers

I have a Z31 wn/b

Thank you

 

http://www.sony.com.sg/support/download/298147/product/vgn-z36gd/sectionfirst?subpage=detail

Here you can find 64bit drivers that work with Windows 7 (tested with 7077 and 7100 on a Z31XN/B). You need to use UniExtract to extract the setup files so that you can skip the hardware validation check.

 

Hey guys,
Tried installing W7 recently, following the guide and everything seemed to be fine until I installed the isbutilty. After a reboot the system wouldn't detect my battery and kept entering hibernation with me unable to do anything on it. Anyone else had this. Machine is Z11VN.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi guys,
the hard disk of my laptop died this morning, tomorrow I will have it back from Sony fixed.
I am the proud owner of a vgn-z27gn (I think it is the z21vn outside Asia, it is the predecessor of the z36gd).
Since I am fed up of Vista I would like to install Windows7 RC1 64bit

Do the 64bit drivers for the z36gd work properly? Do I need to install them or it is better I trust the Windows7 drivers?
Where do I download them? I bought my machine in Malaysia.
Do I have to do something particular to install Windows7?
Do I need to remove all the partitions and create them from the setup of Windows7 or can I just overwrite the C: partition with the new OS?
Does the switch stamina/speed work?

Thank you in advance for your help.
Marco

P.S. Cariparo, I guess you are Italian, can you PM me?

 

Trying to install windows 7 64bit and I'm getting:

"A required cd dvd device driver is missing"

I've tried selecting the chipset drivers but no luck. Anyone else having the same problem?

 

On which model did you get this error?

 

Sorry. VGN-Z11XN/B

 

Hi - thanks to this poster I fixed a weekend of mucking around with how to get around the error message of
"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks."
Which proved frustrating until I saw this work around - many thanks. Used the ESC Key as above

I ended up doing a dual boot just in case everything went wrong - for Vista and Windows 7. Thanks all great forum and discussion

Gear Sony Vaio Z Series VGN-Z36GD with Vista x64 business and now Dual Boot x64 Windows 7.
Previous Gear Sony Vaio TZ Series VGN-TZ170N also running Windows 7 x32 on a clean instal

 

Just finished installing Win7 on Z11XN with SSD. The positive thing is its a lot faster than Vista. The negatives:
-Speed mode does not work, I accidentally allowed win to update Nvidia drivers before installing the originals..
-Fn+brightness doesn't work even with stamina, UAC disabled
-Fn+hibernate doesn't work
-Vaio smartnetwork is somehow weird.. (completely blank, does not display the icons like BT, WLAN) however, WLAN works.
-Alot of stuff missing..I only have Vaio Control Center in the programs menu (i think there used to be at least 5 other vaio programs..), and in the control center, I can only see system information and network connections...
-unknown device: Intel(R) ICH9M-E LPC Interface Controller..
-S1, S2 doesn't work

Any ideas how to get the Fn-keys to work? The audio Fn keys do work.

EDIT:

I downloaded the Z utilities from http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=293880&highlight=utility.zip as someone else had pointed it out previously.

Finally the unknown device got drivers.. it was the Sony extension parser. Weird how this is not included in Sony driver support page for this model. Anyways, now everything started to work (s1,s2,fn-keys, stamina/speed switch), EXCEPT for the brightness fn keys on speed-mode. I guess thats the same for almost everyone.

 

install the windows update nvidia driver, install the one provided on sony's website. should fix the speed/stamina switch. also, brightness fn keys will work in speed mode, but not stamina

 

The Sony Support site has a new Vista 64-bit update: VAIO® Update Software for Microsoft® Windows Vista® 64-bit Operating System, 4.1.1.03150. But when I try to install on Vista 7 x64, it errors out with:

> The current OS version could not support VAIO Update 4. Installation is stopped.

I managed to grab the temporary install folder (same as using uniextract) but still couldn't get setup.exe to run correctly even after using the Compatibility tab, etc. Any ideas of how to get this installed under Windows 7? It's supposed to help with IE8 some how...

 

Anybody have any luck with HDD protection and GOBI driver on Win 7 x64 RC? Which drivers are you running?

 

don't mean to spam the line here, just wanted to update.
Looks like harddrive protection is working. just didn't see it until I hit the vaio status monitor.

tks guys.
still looking for a solution RE: Gobi driver.

 

Gobi driver for Windows 7 x64 seems really difficult. The best references I found were here:

> http://blogs.6bit.com/josh/2009/05/qualcomm-gobi-wwan-card-on-windows-7/#comment-41

Even following this approach and installing the Lenovo driver, I was only able to get VZAccess Manager to start once and recognize the WWAN modem. I don't have Verizon WWAN service so I couldn't go further, and the GPS function still did not work.

Good luck.

 

Oh, didn't realize there was another Win7 thread for the Z.

Did I miss something earlier in this thread about getting the fan to stop running all the time on the CPU? That's the only thing I've got left to fix.

 

Sorry i know this might have been brought up before but i'm trying to clean install win 7 on my new vgn-z690j. i tried to pop in the win7 x64 CD and tried to format my harddrive (SSD) but it wont let me (error message comes up). however, it also says that the selected disk has an MBR partition table and that windows can only be installed to GPT disks. i dont mind erasing everything since it's a brand new computer. but i was wondering how to format my harddisk so its GPT.

 

You don't need to switch away from MBR. See the special boot/ESC-key sequence describe in post #85: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4856768&postcount=85.

 

I've got a VGN-Z690 with the InsydeH2O EFI. Pushing ESC does nothing. Is the procedure different for this version?

 

I have a Z690 CTO with the same InsydeH2O BIOS. It's tricky trying to press ESC at the right time to get it to work. It really does work, but may take many attempts before you do it just right. Unfortunately, I can't remember the details on exactly when I pressed ESC and finally got it to work. I recall searching for more Google references on the technique to find more detail on when to press it and I pressed it multiple times. Good luck.

 

Has anyone else been able to do this yet?

I tried... didn't work for me...

 

Just wondering...has anyone been able to get the brightness working in both video modes with Windows 7 x64? I haven't installed it yet, and would like to know before I wipe the system..

 

No not at this moment I believe. Experts are already working on it. See below thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=342947&page=35

 

By the way, it looks like the Japanese also haven't gotten it working. I've read on three separate Japanese sites that nobody was able to get the brightness working in SPEED mode.