Restoring Windows to Factory Settings without Disc

BirrDude

Hey guys,

I bought a Sony VGN AR51J laptop that's out of warranty now, so had it repaired recently in a different place from where I originally bought it. When it came back from repair, I wanted to restore the c drive (without a disc as vista came preinstalled) to its factory settings but I've tried twice now and each time it has failed to do so properly. It seems to restore to its factory settings successfully but when it updates the various vindows products for the first time, it keeps failing to boot and the 'start up repair' option repeatedly appears.

If I went back to the place where I bought the laptop are they obliged to give me a copy of vista, as I'm sure that it's due to damaged files, or should I try the repair centre?

Any advice would be much appreciated...

phill106

Is it possible to update the files seperately, or does it even work without updating the files? What updates do you mean, is it the windows update or some propiertary sony update software causing the issue?
They would not give you vista cd free as either it would have been provided on purchase (rare these days) or there is a recovery partition and it tells you to make a restore dvd using whatever recovery software is preinstalled on the laptop.
Try the recovery without updates after. If this doesnt work, try borrowing a vista dvd off someone and boot off it, running the repair.
Other then that, I used to work for sony and people would ring everyday for recovery disks, they are available but are expensive enough (probably 30-50 euro).

BirrDude

phill106 wrote: »

Is it possible to update the files seperately, or does it even work without updating the files? What updates do you mean, is it the windows update or some propiertary sony update software causing the issue?
They would not give you vista cd free as either it would have been provided on purchase (rare these days) or there is a recovery partition and it tells you to make a restore dvd using whatever recovery software is preinstalled on the laptop.
Try the recovery without updates after. If this doesnt work, try borrowing a vista dvd off someone and boot off it, running the repair.
Other then that, I used to work for sony and people would ring everyday for recovery disks, they are available but are expensive enough (probably 30-50 euro).

Thanks a million for your advice. I didn't create a restore disc, stupidly enough!

It's the windows updates that are failing I think but not sure, so will try your advice. Really appreciated, slán....

phill106

it may be an idea instead of going through windows update, to update to the service packs first manually. Details are below, you need to have it up to sp1 before you can get sp2.


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935791#Method3