Sony :: VAIO VPC Z HDD Model Recovery Disk Without DVD Writer
Apr 27, 2010
I finally got my VPC Z with HDD/no DVD today and I thought I'd start up a thread on the subject for those like me who once receiving their Z will be trying to use Vaio Recovery Center to create recovery disks without using a DVD Writer.
Installing Win 7 from a USB stick is fairly well documented on the web but the problem above isn't, certainly not for the VPC Z anyway. I know that it's probably gonna be simpler to just create a bootable USB key/stick and copy the relevant drivers to it and use that (something I'll be doing to get rid of all the crapware sony have preinstalled) but I like having the security of an additional backup solution just in case I royally balls it up.
The main issue (i think) is with Vaio Recovery Center itself, if you try to create the recovery disk the software will complain that no dvd writer can be found. After trying a couple of virtual CD/DVD/BD-ROM/HD-DVD tools I took the advice of TofuTurkey (cheers fella) in the vaio owners thread and tried Virtual CD. I'm happy to report that this has the capability to create a fake drive with various fake media discs and does indeed fool the Vaio software into creating an ISO to the internal hard drive. I setup a DVD+R DL drive and everything went smothly. Vaio Rocovery created a single ISO 5,344,117KB in size.
Seems the next trick is to find a way of creating a bootable USB stick (again there's plenty of info out there concerned with installing Win 7) and then writing the ISO (or contents of?) it to it and filing it away for safe keeping. ZoinksS2k mentioned I should be "sure to set the partition to Active and run bootsect to make it bootable." which is going to be my next step after I've read up a little again on this.
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Jun 10, 2009
My brother has a vgn-sz436n, he bought it from asia. recently his sz cannot boot in to normal windows mode, but can get into safe mode. so I figure a way to get into windows mode and made a copy of the sony recovery disk. I start to restore his computer with the disk by pressing F10 in the startup. however it would only install half way, when it restart itself, same thing happened, I cannot get into the windows, all black screen.
so I decide to try install XP, and turn out XP can install perfectly... so I try to do the recovery disc agian, I press F10 in the startup, nothing happened, it just sent me to XP.
How can I recover the vista using the backup reocovery disk? what do I do now?
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Apr 15, 2010
I was looking into getting a VAIO i7 Z series laptop without the blueray drive just the DVD as its £550 more!
Will a panasonic UJ-220 out of a Sony vaio FZ31S fit in the Z
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Oct 17, 2011
I am so tired of receiving Low Disk Space on recovery (D). I have done everything it asked. Empty Recycle Bin which is EMPTY. I am not a computer wizard but it seems unfair that I have pay over $150.00 year to correct this problem once a year. I have checked a lot of places and it just keeps telling me the same thing. That doesn't work.
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I did just install a HP wireless printer 3052A
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HP Pavilion dv6000
Windows Vista (home version)
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Dec 3, 2009
Any new vaio with new specs comin up ? anybody knows ?
Any Core i7 or QX9300 CPUs ? and DDR-3s 1333 or 1600 ?
Something like this below ? Precision M6500
Core i7 * 16 GB of RAM ! * 2x 256 SSD * ATI FirePro M7740 * or Nvidia Quadro FX 2800M a 3800M * or GPS! ?
Nothing from sony ?? mmm no
Sony being CRAP!
This cheap Acer Aspire 8940G
haz amazing results from Everest Memory Test : ( vaio has crappy 6500 or 6850 something like that no more; latency? 80 phew .. )
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Jan 16, 2010
Regarding the FZ model, what type of RAM stick does it take?
Im not a technology expert but I know there are different types of memory sticks (in terms of the physical size)
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Jan 6, 2010
When I go to watch Lost on Hulu it plays fine in small screen. When I go to full screen it is fine until I pause it. Then when I resume play the picture is choppy. Then to get rid of choppy play I must either exit the site and relog in or if I hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete then close Ctrl-Alt-Delete it will resume normal play until I hit pause again. I have had it back to BB for the problem but they dont know what is causing it. I cannot exchange it for another because the new products are coming out in a few weeks and this one is no longer available. I really like this one and I cannot believe this is a major issue. I really dont want to exchange this unit I would rather have it repaired even if I have to do it myself.
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Jan 2, 2010
New Sony Y model has been spotted on a dutch website: Sony Vaio VPC-Y11
Specs:
* 13,3 inch LED backlit
* SU7300 Intel Core 2 Duo CULV
* 4 GB memory
* 320 GB hdd
* Windows 7 Home Premium
* Intel GMA 4500
* Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
* 0.3 megapixel webcam
* HDMI
* 1780 grams
* 9 hours battery life
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Jan 23, 2010
i have a vaio companion dvd for Z690. however my laptop model is Z590.When I try to use the dvd it says it wasn't suitable for my notebook model. how can i modify my model number so that i can use that dvd with my notebook?
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May 27, 2010
I have to fix this notebook for a friend, but I don't know the HDD model or brand. I entered on the bios but it doesn't show. Is there anyway I can get it?
This notebook has hdd problems and I saw an UUID on bios, so here's another question: Is there anything I need to do before replace the hdd or only Sony can replace it?
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Jan 26, 2009
said cable (image attached) in US or Canada.
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Mar 9, 2010
To day i found new Vaio Z show off in my country (Thailand) it come in stores 4 days ago here is specification of top model
VPC-Z117GG
Intel Core i7-620M 2.66GHz - 3.33GHz
DDR3 8GB
Quad SSD 256GB
Nvidia Geforce GT330m
13.1 Screen at 1920x1080
Windows 7 x64 Professional
Weight 1.4 Kg
Battery 5hrs
Local warranty 2years Inter 1 years
Price 94,900 Baht (Approx US$2899)
New palmrest design is looking more better than the picture, the 1920x1080 screen does not look too small at all because it set font size to 125%. Text look a little bigger than the 1600x900 at font size 100%
When i set the font size back to 100% the text is small but not too much i think many people can live with that size.
After that i download some benchmark programs to test the device but in final the sale really don't want me to do that. So i took a picture in hurry and this is the result.
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Nov 30, 2009
I had a question on the SSD drives used in the FW590 CTO (configure-to-order).
I know that they have a 128GB option and also a 256GB option for their SSD drives and wanted to know the make/model/manufacturer of the drives.
As we know, there is a world of difference between the performance of the various SSD drives available, with the Intel models being the highest performing ones, while some of the other SSD drive models being pretty poor from a performance perspective.
I talked to Sony support who expressed complete ignorance on the make/model/manufacturer of the SSD drives employed in the FW models (VGNFW590 CTO is the model I am looking for) and thus was wondering if the folks on the forum know the details on it.
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Nov 25, 2009
Bought my Vaio only a couple of months ago. Thought it was the best thing in the world. When I finally got it and turned it on it kept reminding me to make Recovery Disks!
Finally got around to doing that and stored them in a safe place.
Seeing that I had bought it at a certain time I was receiving the upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium for free. Now mind you, everything was working fine on my laptop up to this point. Windows Vista 64bit Home Premium was doing a fine job. Well, after receiving the upgrade I went ahead and installed it. Also did the companion cd that came along with the upgrade. Went to sony esupport webpage and downloaded all upgrades from there.
This is where things started to go wrong. For some odd reason, some of the upgrades from the esupport webpage would not install, mainly the WinDVD program for my Blueray player.
Idid everything that I knew possible to get it to install. Nothing worked. I finally got to the point where I was about ready to call Sony and tell them to take the dang thing back. Now here is where I start to make mistakes. Being as frustrated as I was, and not thinking about the possible consequences...I inserted the recovery disk into my laptop. Turn off the laptop and restarted. Up pops the menu to erase all the stuff from my C: Drive.....and that's what I did. After all was said and done and while trying to restore my C: Drive, I find out that the first disk that I made is corrupt. Mainly the P23.sny file. If I could somehow possibly get this file from someone then I could make a new recovery disk and start all over again. I've looked on the laptop to see if that specific file is there and alas it is not......don't know why either. I need help in a big way.
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May 19, 2010
I just got my new Z, burned the recovery disk, did a clean install of retail W7, and now wanted to go back to original factory setting. So I popped my recovery disk back in, selected "Restore Complete System", went through all the default options. Then I got "An error occurred while executing an application." at 17% into recovery, and the recovery stopped.
Did I screwed up on the recovery disk? My recovery disk is 7.90GB.
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Jan 22, 2009
My Sony VAIO laptop came with Windows Vista Home Premium installed. I created a recovery disk and installed Windows XP. Now I want to install Windows Vista again. In the meantime I have repartitioned my disk and created a backup partition where I put my files. If a use the recovery disk to reinstall Windows Vista will it affect the backup partition (D drive) or just the C drive.
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Mar 7, 2010
Is there a way to recover laptop without the recovery disk? I'm told there may be this function on the computer itself...but don't know how to get there..
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Mar 29, 2010
I've been trying to create recovery disks for the new VPCZ1 I got a couple days ago through the VIAO care Recovery and Restore tool. I get two error messages either:
"No installed optical drive is detected on your computer" even though the drive seems to be working fine outside of the recovery tool.
or
"The disc in the drive is not blank or is not a supported disc type"
even though the computer recognizes the disc as a blank dvd outside of the recovery tool.
I usually get the first error message, then when I hit "back" and click create a recovery disk again, I get the second error message.
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Apr 28, 2009
I hear it is possible to create a recovery disk on only one DVD-R for my Vaio laptop. I lost my disks and need to recreate them, but the recovery app fails after a few disks.
What I need to know is what type of DVD-R can I buy that would have the capacity to hold all the recovery disks data?
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Jan 10, 2010
i have got vaio fz140 eb model which came with windows vista home premium and 200 gb disk.
i have installed western digital 500 gb disk drive which was running fantastic till 4 days.i have installed windows 7 home premium family pack on this system.
issue i am facing is weird.few days ago i copied few GB of data from western digital portable drive of my senior.while copying data,it was scanned by Kaspersky internet security which found some 70 virus .it managed to fix them all.it was fat32 formatted drive.
now problem is my laptop becomes unresponsive for long duration.then only thing i can do is forced shutdown.after restart.it does chkdisk and says fixing this fixing that.
but problem is still their.what i realised is it was giving errors on some perticular file.
i ran western digital life tools to diagnose this drive.it says SMART test pass but it says this error........
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Apr 13, 2009
I have a Vaio TZ180N laptop with a 5400RPM hard disk and Vista. The disk is incredibly slow in my opinion - especially since I use this as a development machine (perhaps not best suited for the job!!). I have 2GB memory in it, but that doesn't seem to help all that much as the system is constantly running at 90%+ memory usage.
I would like to replace the disk with an SSD disk if possible. Will this work?
I'm a novice when it comes to the hardware of a laptop and will need some advice. Are SSD drives basically compatible with the disk in the Vaio? If so, should I look for something specific while buying an SSD drive - such as a specific interface or something?
If this is possible, will this significantly improve the performance of my machine?
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Sep 8, 2012
i have a hp 620 notebook, and it is given me an error message "non-system disk or disk error" after i turned it on. it had worked find in the morning and now it is displaying this error message and i cannot log into my notebook. i tried to recover it with hp recovery but it said "data is not valid.
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Feb 7, 2010
I own the VPCCW27FX from Best Buy. Last night, after burning a DVD, I experienced the blue screen of death. I noticed that my DVD writer only burns at 2.4x speed. I called Sony Customer Support and they could not provide me the with the optical speed of my drive and could not help me increase my burning speed. To the other people who own this computer or a similar model, what is your drive speed? Is there something wrong with my computer? It takes me 23 minutes to burn a DVD, a lot slower than my old Toshiba laptop.
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Dec 27, 2009
when I try burn an DVD my drive stop working.
it read fine but when I try burn an DVD it give me an error.
my drive is: mata dvd-ram uj-852s
some one know where I can solve this situation or download a new firmware to try solve this?
[url]
my actual date firmware drive is 26/06/2006.
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Mar 11, 2009
I own a Vaio FW series and I found that the Click to Disk Editor doesnt run at all as well as that the vaio update fail to update this particular application.
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Mar 2, 2013
I have an HP Pavilion dv6000 and run Windows Visa Home Edition.I wanted to restore my laptop to its factory settings but the Recovery Manager wouldn't work. When I clicked on it it would just restart the computer without anything else happening. I then right clicked on the computer >manage> disk manager and made the recovery partition active. When I rebooted the computer it began showing:Bootmgr is missingPress Ctrl+Alt+DeleteWhich of course leads back to the same message after te computer reboots. I can't access F8 key. Only F10 (Bios) works. I don't have a recovery or installation CD as it didn't come with the laptop when I purchased it.Is there anyway I can change the active partition back to the C drive, this disabling the recovery partition? I read that it was possible to access disk manager from cmd prompt window, but I don't know how to access it since the F8 key won't work (makes just a bipping noise when pressed)?I am also out of the country so can't mail my laptop to HP to have it fixed.
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Jan 23, 2013
i have hp pavilion g6 notebook pc laptop...but it does not contain recovery disk and whenever i create recovery disk from recoverry manager it failed to verify disk 1 and show the message "insert another disk " it happen again and again ...what to do....
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Nov 3, 2014
I performed a system recovery to factory settings that resulted in my Disk space being distributed differently than before. I have a lot of unallocated space as you can see bellow. I need to know how to fix and how to prevent this from happening the next time I perform a recovery. Also, is it normal for the RECOVERY (D) partition to show multiple times in Disk Management ?
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Jan 16, 2010
My FJ1S vaio just crashed one day and now getting blue screen of death after Win XP splash screen on boot up. It is a generic 'Windows needs to shut down to protect your machine' bla bla bla.
Here is the real problem: when trying to use the recovery disks, or recovery utility it comes up with the error 'Cannot use this utility for your computer. Confirm the model type'. I have successfully used it many times before though. Wierd.
Checking the bios, it says Machine Name and Serial Number are 'RESERVED', which leads me to believe the BIOS is somehow corrupt - shouldn't these be populated? I am not sure as I have never checked before! I assume the recovery utility checks for these details as it is OEM installed software and when it cannot won't boot.
I contacted Sony support who gave me the only option of sending it in for £399! More than the 4 yr old machine is worth!
I think my best solution is to do a clean install of XP as I have the key and could potentially borrow a CD. I would rather have the use of the recovery tool though as it is very useful and has all the pre-installed Sony software, drivers, etc.!
I was thinking of trying to 'hack' the phoenix bios with an editor - maybe too risky?
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Feb 28, 2009
I am trying to reformat a friend's Vaio but he did not make Recovery discs. Any ideas please how I can do this? Its Model : PCG-7N1M and VGN-FE21S
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