extract software new sony format image

Hi,
I have sony VAIO VGN-430N/B, and It has came with windows vista business.
I'm trying to extract the software from the recovery disks using the ".pac" extractor, but It doesn't work.
It seems that the images in my discovery disks aren't ".pac" images (the software is some how included in ".mod" images)
Please, Does anyone know how to extract all the software from the recovery disk??

thanks in advance,
Roger Silva

 

I found the only useful software you can extract from the PAC files was WinDVD the rest is downloadable from the website.

I suspect that the roxio burning app is in a mod file as I couldnt find it in the pacs and it's probably the only other thing worth extracting if possible unless you make use of the other Sony software on the machine.

 

Hi,
I appreciate your help
Please, Do you know something that I can use to extract everything from the recovery disk??
I really need to extract the drivers, and also I want to extract Sony VAIO Central, and Utilities (I've already tried to install those downloaded from Sony support website, but It doesn't work properly as It should, gives me blue screen :-/ ).
Should I install in the following order?
First: Sony Programmable I/O Control Device Driver
Second : Sony Shared Library
Third: Sony Notebook Utilities
Forth: Sony Utilities DLL Update

Is the order above correct?

thanks a lot,
Roger

 

Although I don't own a Sony laptop, I think you need to do the DLL update sooner.

 

Hi,
thanks for helping...
Do you know how can I extract all the software form the recovery disks??


thanks

 

Do you mean : you want to get rid of them ? or you want extract them ?
I don't think there are easy ways for either of them.
In fact if you want to do a fresh installation and then use these programs the only clean way (without taking a LOT of time) is to contact Sony and tell them what you are getting.
But have you tried installing them [the one's that you downloaded] in the order that I said ? And are you sure that you got the correct version of the drivers ? [the XP drivers differ from Vista drivers]
And lastly I think your laptop should have come with a driver CD, why aren't you using that ?

 

Hi,
thanks again for helping....

Instead of coming with the discovery disks, my notebook has came with a hidden discovery partition. Therefore, I've done the discovery disks using Vaio recovery Canter by my on.

I've already contact Sony, they have told me I'm forced to install all the software that is bundled with the recovery disks, and also they told m that it is not possible to select which of the software I want to install....
Therefore, I'm trying to extract all images reallied on the recovery disks in order to do a clean windows vista install, and then install just what i want....
I'm pretty upset with Sony services, How come I bough a notebook and I can't even select which software to install on it?I think this Notebook is going to be the first, and last, VAIO Notebook that I've bought ...
I've contacted sony a lot of times, they either deny to me a clean copy of windows vista that I've paid for it (as It comes with the notebook, then the OS license is included in it price )....

I've trying also to install windows xp sp 2 on my notebook; however, I couldn't find the appropriate drivers for it, and Sony denies to put Xp drivers available as It is considered a downgrade.....
by the way, It seems that meanwhile Windows XP much better than Vista (I've being facing a lot of incompatible issues, and also it is to unstable.It seems that I'm dealing with a unfinished product...).
Do you have any idea also where I can download windows xp's drivers for this notebook?


thanks in advance,
Roger

 

Hi,
sorry...I almost have forgotten to give your answer....
I want to extract the software that I want to install from the discovery disks' images....


thanks,
Roger

 

For the drivers.I'm afraid we have to resort to the hard way of doing things.
Go to the homepage of the company that made the drivers for each device and get the drivers.
As for the useless software, the chances of managing to extract/make a clean installation of Vista is very very little.You have to recover and then start uninstalling the bloatware one by one (there might be some software that would clean the bloatware for Vaio laptops search the internet).After you got rid of the bloatware, make a recovery disk (an option is Norton Ghost) and use it instead of the recovery disk.
Sony will do it's best to make sure you won't be able to get rid of the useless software easily because Sony has been paid to put that load of bloatware there.

 

HI,
thanks for helping...
I've been trying to fund windows xp drivers for my notebook for long time with no success...
I can't find driver for the devices bellow:
-Sony Visual Communication Camera
-Texas Instruments PCI7411 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
- nVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 Graphics Controller Driver
Please, Does any one have any idea where I can find those drivers for windows xp??or how do I extract all software from the recovery disks??
As I couldn't find the drivers above, I've tried to install the same Sony's drivers for another notebooks models that comes with windows XP, but in the installation application doesn't allow me to install it as the drivers were made for another notebook model - I mean, when I try to install then, the installation doesn't complete because the driver checks rather or not I'm running it on specific notebook.
Therefore, does anybody know if it is possible to by pass this "check model" from Sony's drivers install application(command line option to force install, or just to extract the drivers without installing it would solve the problem)??


thanks a lot,
Roger

 

Anyone found tool for extract MOD files?

 

Most of the .mod files in the recovery partition (and probably other places) are actually WIM (Windows Imaging Format) files. You can check this by opening the file in Notepad or any other text or hex editor and checking if the first 5 characters are MSWIM. Some of the mod files I found started with " <90mCor" and I still don't know how to handle those files.

So if your file is really WIM, you can extract or mount it using ImageX utility (see edit note below), which is a free download from Microsoft. The downside is that it's packaged into the Windows Automated Installation Kit package ( Windows AKI) making the 500KB file that you really need into 900MBs. After some looking around I found a standalone version (but it might not be the latest version) over here
http://www.plumgames.free.fr/aeroxp/imagex.zip If the link is dead or something just google imagex.zip and you should get something.

Once you get the file open up cmd (Win+R and type cmd) and navigate to the directory of imagex.exe If you run imagex you'll see the info for the utility. Basically the only two commands you'll need are "imagex /info <wim path>", which will give you some info about the image (if you get a header mismatch error, the file is either not a WIM file or your imagex utility is out of date). From this command you should note the number of images present in the WIM since you'll need to use it in the next command. Usually it's only 1 image. To actually extract the contents of the WIM file you would use the following command: "imagex /apply <wim path> <image#> <output path>", where <image#> is the number noted previously (usually 1) and <output path> is an existing directory where you want to extract the files (could be on another disk).

Well that's all the info I have for now. If anyone knows anything about extracting files that have " <9mCor" at the beginning of file, I'd appreciate the info.

Edit: It seems that 7zip version 4.49 and later are capable of extracting WIM files, so you might want to try that instead, since it is much more convenient. I have not tested it, because I do not have the mod files anymore, but that is what their changelog says. You might want to try extracting " <9mCor" images using 7zip as well.

 

Back to the first poster, RogerSilva. I think he needs the XP drivers so that he can downgrade. I've had pretty good luck getting drivers without SONY's annoying model compatibility checks. Go to this FTP site:
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/OS/XPDOWNGRADE/
This site is for UK (United Kingdom) models, and do not include the VGN-N series, but I was able to use drivers from the other models with success on my US bought VGN-N365E/B.

 

Oh, here is another site for my VAIO VGN-N3 series.
http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/216766
You may be able to browse this site for XP downgrade drivers compatible for your model. My guess is that the US-JP-UK model numbers are different, but their series numbers use the same drivers and have the same hardware config. Can anyone confirm this?

 

Does anyone know what the .sny files are and how to extract them? Most are very large upwards of 500 meg.

Specifically, I'm looking for Vaio Control Center on the recovery DVD for VGN-CR120E and I searched every directory. The only thing I can think of is it is burried in one of the .sny files.

Thanks in advance!

P.S. I tried installing the one from ftp.vaio-link.com but the UK version of this notebook must be different. It wasn't the right version (had many non-applicable options such as memory bus speed).

 

Hmm. I'm looking at MOD files on the recovery DVDs (no room for a partition on my 32GB SSD).

Neither 7Zip nor ImageX seem able to be able to open these MOD files--any one else have any experience here?

 

The SNY files I mentioned do have MSWIM as the first 5 but I couldn't open with 7-zip either. Nor imageX.

 

I need extract mod and sny. Can you help me? 7-zip and Imagex not open. Thanks

 

I think I've found the solution which requires a simple file hack. So far I could open various files (APP, SNY, MOD) from all 3 recovery DVDs. Installing apps manually seems to work fine.
Anyone still interested?

 

Here: http://translate.google.com/transla...t=result&prev=/search?q=%22%3C90mCor%22&hl=en is a Google English translation of a Japanese posting by a guy who seems to have got a handle on extracting from Sony recovery disks that have "<90mCor" in the header. I didn't do much follow-up on that site, so I don't know how well the story ended, but it might give you some good ideas.

 

I discovered it on my own, it's too obvious if you use a hex editor.

The trick is to overwrite the first 16 bytes

".<90mCor*oratdnn" = 1E 3C 39 30 6D 43 6F 72 A0 6F 72 61 74 64 6E 6E

with the usual first 16 WIM-header-bytes

"MSWIM...Ð......." = 4D 53 57 49 4D 00 00 00 D0 00 00 00 00 0D 01 00.

After that ImageX recognizes the file. Try imagex /info first. Some files are spanned (.SNY) so you'll need the /ref option. Mount won't work directly with these, you'll have to create one big file - see ImageX /EXPORT ...
It seems that the big spanned WIM image (Windows system files) already contains some Google and other s*uff. I guess I'll have to do a clean Vista install instead of applying this image.
But: using above technique you can extract individual apps (mostly from individual MOD files) and install them, it'll even work on a totally different PC though I don't recommend this - licensing issues etc.

 

Another method, might not be as useful as previous, but it helped me to extract Roxio from the Vista recovery DVD (SZ460N/C).

After a little investigation (using just the text editor of the Far file manager) it appeared that MOD file with Roxio contains only one setup file. So I just removed all garbage from the beginning of the MOD file before the usual windows .exe header (MZ........PE.....). Renamed the file to setup.exe and run. It said that archive has the wrong size and the correct size is xxxxxx (do not remember the numbers now). So I just opened the file with the text editor (I used one from the Far manager) again and removed some garbage (acording to the required size from the end of the file this time).

That is all. I have installed Roxio on my XP downgraded system with no problems

Regards,
Oleg

 

@IIIaman: Yeah, I would have tried that, too. I just checked 2 MOD files using imagex /info and it reported "Compression: None" for both. So your method may work with all MODs. However if you need files from SNY - it reports "Compression: XPRESS" so this may fail with these.

To make sure everyone gets it: Windows Imaging (incl. imagex.exe) is 100% free from MS and can do lots of stuff if you're confident with the command-line. Most home users however will pay $50 to get software like Acronis and enjoy a nice and easy graphical user interface.
Another WIM drawback: ImageX is contained in a large MS-download called "Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK)" 992 MB http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c7d4bc6d-15f3-4284-9123-679830d629f2 . If you just need imagex - I'm sure you can find imagex-rips on the web - couple of MBs max.
With AIK you get WinPE though. You can create your own customized WinPE boot discs - include imagex, drivers, patches, apps etc. And unlike ol' MS-DOS floppy discs WinPE can easily access USB-drives and network shares (command "net use").
WinPE also has "diskpart" for creating and managing partitions and of course "format". So basically a bootable WinPE disc can replace the need for software like Acronis True Image if you know how to use those commands. There are pros and cons of course. Very cool imagex feature is that you can actually modify images offline instead of lenghty restore-modify-recreate procedures including reboots.

Some step-by-step info:
WinPE http://www.minasi.com/newsletters/nws0701.htm
ImageX on WinPE http://www.minasi.com/newsletters/nws0702.htm

 

Bravo! IIIaman & PWR, thank you for the information. With your help I was able to install most of the software from from recover disk. It seems that because I installed 64bit version of Vista, the recover disk doesn't recognize my computer as SONY VAIO. I still haven't figured out how to get SonicStudio reconize my VAIO.

 

There is a bit of an easier way, in the sense that you do not need other software. I figured this out while trying to get SonicStage Mastering Studio installer files from the recovery disc. However I have only tried for my recovery disc for fz290 so i dont know it does the same thing with other models/version.

The Sony Recovery software actually extracts setup files while it installs, puts it in a temp folder and deletes the installation files after installing that software. So if you need a single software to install, you can use this way to get it. It is obvious that it will become a bit tedious for a lot of softwares.

So the recovery centers puts the files under:

C:\Users\YourUserNameHere\AppData\Local\Temp
The installer files disappear from here once the installation is completed.

It has put Sonicstage Mastering Studio files under 3 folders:
SSMS - sonicstage mastering studio itself
SSFL - Audio filter
SSPL - Filter Plugins

So it will probably use the same abbreviation convention used for the downloads for original and update installers.


and if you are interested it puts the compressed files (mods and sny's)

C:\Users\YourUserNameHere\AppData\Roaming\Modules\
and the mounted compressed file at a particular is put under
C:\Users\YourUserNameHere\AppData\Roaming\Mount\

And the files disappear from here once you close the Recovery Application.

 

For my VGN-FZ190N1 this don't work.

Can't export or mount image (16 byts modified) I used XVI32 Hex Editor.

Can someone help me?

 

I heve success changing header of archive for

4D 53 57 49 4D 00 00 00 D0 00 00 00 00 0D 01 00 82 00 02 00 00 80

Afet save new file I use GImageX Apply option and extract MOD content for a dir and install application.

 

I've written a batch script called mod2wim (partly inspired by the script in this thread) which automates the process of retrieving/patching/merging/mounting mod/sny files from the recovery partition or recovery discs. Just extract the zip file in the system root, run c:\mod2wim\mod2wim.bat as admin (right-click->Run as admin), pick your task and let the script do the job...

DL link: http://rapidshare.com/files/180131992/mod2wim.zip

Edit 1: New version, supports setting of source drive (useful for recovery discs), if drive doesn't exist the recovery partition is temporarily mounted to it.
Edit 2: Minor bugfix, realized that the lines checking whether the drive was already mounted were a mess.
Edit 3: Added the x64 version of imagex to mod2wim.zip for use when deploying Sony.wim with a Vista x64 installation DVD, no changes to the script.
Edit 4: Removed obsolete files accidentally included on previous change, also improved script documentation.

Word of caution: The script uses Diskpart to temporarily unhide the recovery partition. If you use the script to mount a Sony recovery partition on a computer that doesn't have one, that could possibly affect the Windows partition instead (most likely it won't though, since the Windows partition is locked and in use) and require manual correction of the partition ID tag before Windows can be booted again...

 

Excellent Script, Thanks alot it worked a treat to get the Sony.Wim and the mod files as wims. Sorry to ask a stupid question, but im unsure how to use the sony.wim file to restore the entire OS. Can you provide any advice on this? ive been able to get each wim file mounted and can see the contents and can see how i can install them wims, but with the big sony wim im a little unsure how to use it.

 

Had some problems with the sony.wim seems like when i and run the machine that it comes up saying that it cant complete installation. i wrote the sony.wim to a dvd, used a vista dvd to get to the recover console, then used imagex to apply the sony wim, that looked to work ok, but now it doesnt work any thoughts?

 

Ok i got it working, will happily work from a dvd, just needed to format the c: and then leave the dvd in teh drive while vista was doing its install ( after imagex had done its magic). Up and running nicely now, just a simple question, where does the vaio recovery centre come from, for the life of me i cant find it on the recovery disk, i was lucky enough to back up that folder but i cant see where sony installs it from? Any thoughts?

 

I haven't tried out the Sony.wim image myself, but I'm glad you got it working in the end. As for the Recovery centre, you mean it's not on the Sony.wim image and not among the mod files on the recovery partition? Either way, I think it can be downloaded from the Sony Vaio download/support site...

 

Hi guies,
i have a vaio vgn-cr11gh and i got a recovery disk of a vgn-cr32.i successfuly extracted all the software from the recovery disk and I installed vaio music box but i doesn't work.Do I have to install all the other software to make it work?also there is something i don't understand about the sony.wim file, it is just 130Mb or the *sny files it came from are about 2.8GB! anyone can tell me how should i proceed, and will it work for my vgn-cr11 to install a vgn cr32 in it?thanks

 

If you're installing in Vista, first make sure you've run the setup as administrator. Just a guess, maybe the Sony Shared Library is required for that program to function (list of Sony utility dependecies here, no mention of Vaio Music Box though). However, since you're using a recovery disk from a different model there is always a chance that something will not work. As for the Sony.wim file, it should be much larger than that, it should at the very least be the sum of the *.sny files. Even 2.8GB sounds very small, since the resulting Sony.wim file should be something like 4.8GB if I recall correctly. Maybe a missing/corrupt *.sny file?

 

I have tried to extract files from .mod, some I can use wimtool to extract directly, some I updated the header to "4D 53.......", then it worked, but still some .mod files, I couldn't do nothing on them, anybody got ideas?

My model is AR71ZU

 

Hi im after vaio media plus and vaio window organizer, i cant get my head around all this mod extraction, its far too complicated for me, i dont have a dvd burner to burn my vaio p recovery partition. ive already spent 2 days installing windows rc1 as vista was shockingly e on the vaio p! I have the vaio running super sweet now. i still have the recovery partition but when i try and install the software i want it looks like its copying the files to the c drive then theres an error. can someone send me these two files or even better if there is a link for them,
thanks in advance
JK

 

So if I run this script the guy stated that that mostly likely I wont cause any harm to my HD but still. Ive done a clean install to Windows Vista Ultimate, but Im missing some drivers on the recovery disk. Will this script work

 

Today I tried to do a clean install of FW31ZJ, which have a 64bit vista on it. But it seems to me there is no Sony.wim files...

There are SNY files and are proccessed, but after the script says "mering SNY files" and "Done..." there are no new files in the /wim directory...only files that were proccessed from original .mod files.

Do you think sony changed something in SNY files and so we cannot get to the original Sony.wim file or am I doing something wrong?

 

Thank you so very much.
I got back my Photoshop elements, using your method, easily opened with 7zip.
Got a bit scared when I was asked for a serial for elements, but even that was there in the archive.
Thanks again.

 

I tried to use mod2win to obtain installs (acrobat/elements/windvd ...) for
a windows 7 update
The mod2win script from http://rapidshare.com/files/180131992/mod2wim.zip
failed to unmount the restore partition using option "6: [Un]Mount Recovery Volume"
this seems to be because of missing space on line 149 mod2wim.bat
"echo removeall dismount" -> "echo remove all dismount"
I could not find a more recent mod2win version.

Cheers, jpaul

 

I am having the same problem

 

thank you for this software! It worked 100%. The other one called Patch wouldn't work but your's is perfect! One small question though. I know what to do with sony.wim but what about all the other vaio utilities in wim? How can I extract them? With 7-zip?

 

Yes, 7-zip will open them once they have been patched, but you can also mount them all simultaneously inside the \wim directory using mod2wim if you're looking for something specific but don't know where to find it. Then you can use the "search file names and contents" search option in Windows Explorer to search though the contents of all inf/txt files...