any reference to clean install for VAIO Z13?

want to do a clean install but cannot find reference on how to do it right

please help.

 

forgot to mention, it is win7 clean install

 

I followed this guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/467565-vaio-z-vpcz1-clean-install.html

I have also removed the hidden recovery partition (after burning the recovery DVDs) and I downloaded the driver from sony asia instead since I am in Asia.

Everything works flawlessly after clean install; so I created an system image immediately in order to prevent the need to reinstall windows / all the drivers again

BTW, I was not able to use ABR to re-activate my windows....
so I did phone activation instead but it works fine also

 

thanks so much for the information. appreicate it!

 

If you have a recovery partition with the correct OS and you simply want to reinstall without all the bloatware, there is also a guide which tells you how to
1. back up the VAIO RECOVERY folder from c:\program files (x86)\SONY\
2. run complete system recovery as usual
3. use task manager (ctrl+alt+del) to kill VAIORecv.exe after it has installed Windows, but before it starts installing bloatware.
4. copy the backed up VAIO RECOVERY folder back to its original location.
5. run VAIORecv.exe and select the option to reinstall programs and drivers, and choose what you want to reinstall, or download drivers from the Sony website and install from there.

Worst case, if something goes wrong, since your recovery partition is intact, you do a complete system recovery by pressing F10 at the VAIO boot screen, and reinstall everything, bloatware and all.

Sony recommended order of installing stuff:

1. Windows 7
2. Intel Chipset
3. Nvidia Graphics
4. Audio
5. Ethernet
6. MS Card
7. SD Card
8. Pointing Device
9. Sony Firmware Extension
10. Bluetooth
11. Intel ME
12. Intel Wireless
13. Turbo Boost
14. TPM (if needed)
15. Setting Utility Series
16. Sony Shared Library
17. VAIO Event Services
18. VAIO Control Center
19. Battery Checker
20. VAIO Location Utility
21. VAIO Power Management
22. VAIO Smart Network
23. VAIO Update
24. Protector Suite

 

I did a clean install and found (or just got lucky?) that you have to install Shared Library before Sony Notebook Utilities, and that's it...or just note above.

 

Yes, that would make sense. Kind of like how the chipset drivers need to be installed before anything else.

 

Just ordered a VPC-Z1290X........Can I expect it to be that bloated that I should do a fresh install?

 

Just play around with it first for a few days; make sure everything works the way it should. You'll soon figure out if the bloatware is excessive or not. Not all trialware is bad; since they get preinstalled, might as well check them out to see if you like them.

This will also give you a feel for which VAIO stuff you should install when you do your clean install. The battery care feature, for example.

 

I honestly didn't find a lot of bloatware.
Uninstalled Norton and a few other Sony apps, no big deal at all.

 

Watch out for the VAIO content analyser crap. You plug in an external USB drive, this thing starts analysing the contents and then you can't eject the drive - analysing 500GB of data is bound to take a while. Similarly with the PMB (picture and movie browser).

Rest of the stuff I found fairly benign.

 

I agree with the above.