new z12, confused

hey guys I just got a vaio Z12 and have a lot of questions: I got a VPCZ122GX/B from the microsoft store, they have added some of their own software onto it and call it "signature pc", I am confused though... they did not give me any serial code for windows7, nor did they give me a win7 operating system disk.

I made "recovery disks" from the vaio care panel right now, but what does that actually do? What happens if I format/erase the hard drive and recover using those disks, will it have all the extra software that microsoft added too or does it just save only what sony had originally put on there? Are there any hidden partitions on the hdd, what are they for and is it ok to remove them? will they get re-created if i restore from the disks?

I have a small hdd so I want to wipe everything clean including any useless hidden recovery partitions, and get rid of all unnessesary junk, and install win7 pro. But I want to make sure to save everything just as it is right now first and be able to get back to it, and it would be nice to find out what my serial key is for win7 so that i could install it using a retail dvd.

what would be the minimum amount of vaio apps to install? or do i just need drivers?

thanks

 

Hopefully you still have a recovery partition. Your windows 7 key is a sticker on the bottom of the computer, but you don't need it to restore.

You can boot to the recovery partition by powering off and then powering on using either the Vaio or Assist buttons (I can't remember which) INSTEAD of the power button.

If it were me, I would recover that way to the stock sony image and then uninstall the few Sony apps you don't want (and also make some recovery discs). This method is MUCH easier than a clean install due to all the sony drivers and utilities needed to make everything work correctly.

Good luck.

 

One more thing, if you make recovery discs and restore with them it will not have any of the stuff MS or you added. That said, it's much faster to do it from the HDD (and more reliable) as I stated above. You should make the disks first anyhow.

 

If you want to backup all of your hard drive including all programs you mentioned, you will need to make a drive image or use another backup tool. For that, you can try this guide I wrote up some time ago http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/512180-how-make-full-backup-your-vaio-z.html#post6625769

Compared to the recovery via disk or recovery partition, this method will take less time and you wont lose anything from your current configuration and software, you do not even need to reactivate software or something. In addition to that, you can get rid of the recovery partition (since you can recover directly from an external drive then) and save some valuable space on your ssd's.

 

Thanks for your tips guys, I forgot it could have a serial sticker on the bottom I was up 48hrs with no sleep

I had an old version of hiren's boot CD not sure what version, and when I booted off it I saw it get as far as loading XP then it blue-screened. I am about to try burning a "systemrescuecd" instead, it has a linux program on it called partimage that is supposed to be like nortons ghost. If that doesn't work I will try making a new hirens.

Beaups, I saw you say in a thread that you can't secure erase on a Z? I was planning to do that in order to get the best performance of the ssd. Isn't there any way to clean up the ssd?

I am totally new to using ssd and RAID but I know we have no trim in RAID, only a garbage collection feature, and I heard intel is making a new driver to allow trim in RAID. Does this mean we will see trim support soon for the Z?

If I want to have a dualboot with win7-pro 64 and xp-pro 64, do you think I should make 3 NTFS partitions and keep programs seperate from the OS's? I won't need a partition for a swapfile right? I should make a ramdrive for it (how)? Any other tips or things to know?

This one might be a stupid question, but if I use 32bit apps in a 64bit OS, is it running them in some kind of virtual mode, will it be slowed down or have any kind of issues? I will install a 32bit XP if necessary. I have old programs and hardware that I may need to run. If I can run 32bit programs on a 64bit OS, does that mean I can also install 32-bit drivers for old hardware that hasn't got any 64bit driver available?

 

No, you can't secure erase. If you hack the bios to enable ahci mode, I think you still can't secure erase...but not sure.

32bit apps in 64bit o/s are fine. Also, you still cannot install 32bit drivers in 64bit o/s.

 

Would a simple reformatting or writing 0's with a privacy utility make the ssd go back to full performance? I see a lot of conflicting information about it.

I made a DOS bootable USB stick with norton ghost 2003 on it, but it doesn't see my external USB hdd to save the image to it, any idea?

 

There's a good thread on the forum here on how to do a good image (google hirens bootcd).

 

I got hirens 10.6 loaded now, the mouse in mini-xp is messed up and automatically clicks things when you hover over them, and when I try to run ghost it just opens up with a black screen and hangs.