IMG_7117

Vaio's suck. TechCrunch is great!

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Comments

michaelarrington says:

of course, vaio's don't ship with the original cds any more, so I'm totally screwed.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

michaelarrington says:

Death to the evil best buy and sony, who sold me this piece of crap.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

andykaufman says:

ouch
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Mike, I think there's still a way to get the machine to boot if you hold down some weird key combo as you boot. I linked to this from Scripting News in case anyone who reads my site knows the answer. Don't forget to pack your Wheaties!
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

seanwbohan says:

Dell does the same thing...
add them to the list of "Death-to's"

Why would you need the CD's??? Unless you are going to share it on the internets!
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

danmact says:

Holding down F8 (or sometimes Ctrl-F8) while you boot up should get you the boot menu, from which you can select Safe Mode and maybe get to the recovery software that Sony should have pre-installed.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Joe Wilcox says:

Mike, hold down the F10 key as the Sony logo comes up. That should launch the recovery partition on the hard drive. You should be able to reinstall Windows that way.

Joe Wilcox
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

michaelarrington says:

whoa. thanks everyone. trying it now.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

easea says:

This is a reminder that I should build recovery CDs for my Vaio... maybe later.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

michaelarrington says:

well, f10, f8, ctrl-f8 and ctrl-f10 don't do squat, whether I hold them down while booting or just click them. damn.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Serge K. Keller, FCD says:

Have you access to some tool like a bootable CD of Norton Ghost? (friend, colleague, etc.) You may be able to boot through that and 'see' the hidden image that Sony has probably put on your hard drive and that, if restored, will bring you back to a usable machine. It could also allow you to backup your documents before restoring the system (which could possibly nuke your docs).
HTH
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Dmitry Chestnykh says:

Right after the first launch, Vaio asks you to burn recovery CDs. Next time you better burn them ;)
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

michaelarrington says:

Dmitry, that is a great idea. Thanks. :-)

Maybe I'll just burn this thing at the next techcrunch meetup.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

scriptingnews says:

Hey that's why it's called a BBQ.

What else should we burn?
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

indiekid says:

you could also call sony for some restore disks (i used to work in the geek squad at best buy and this was all that we could do for some models)
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

michaelarrington says:

no, i think burning it is definitely the thing to do. and maybe Worst Buy too. I am amazed at how little they cared about my problem.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

MikeBladon says:

a lot of places will reinstall windows for you (hopefully Best Buy) using the key on the windows sticker from under your laptop.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

lexalexander says:

Michael: What model is your Vaio? I may have a set of recovery CDs I could send you if all else fails. E-mail me at lex dot alexander at earthlink dot net
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

caseyparsons says:

Michael,
It's not exactly "legal," but you can probably find a copy of windows online or through bittorrent (using another computer, of course). Make an install CD from that file, but only use it to replace that missing file through the repair console.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

dberlind says:

If you turn the machine upside down, is there a mini-Windows license certificate with installation key? If so, any Windows XP CD will work and just use that key if it asks. XP CD's by themselves will get the machine to a bootable workable state. Someone you know must have some. You may need to go online to grab some of the Vaio-specific drivers. I've had to do this a couple of times. It's a pain. But it works.

By the way, if you ever go to a retail outlet and you see the certificates torn off the notebooks and desktops on display... it's because people are stealing the license keys to make copies.

David
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

michaelarrington says:

Thanks David. Great advice. I'm now gone for the holidays but I'll do this when I get back. Hopefully all the netflix dvds I ripped will be saved.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

dberlind says:

One point... if the first CD you try it with was a retail-purchased CD (in other words, not one that came with someone else's computer.. aka.. an OEM CD) and it doesn't work, try finding someone's OEM CD (the one that came with their system). If I remember correctly, I once tried an OEM key (the ones affixed to the bottom of a system) with a retail CD and it didn't work. Anyway, the entire point of having those license keys affixed to the bottom of the notebook were for this very reason... to cover people for lost media).
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

morkin_99 says:

Michael,

From the Sony Web site:

eSupport Knowledge Base
Knowledge Article C342190
How to purchase recovery CD/DVDs for computer products.

Recovery CD/DVDs are available directly from the Sony Direct Accessories and Parts Center.

The Sony Direct Accessories and Parts Center can be contacted by the following methods:

Internet: servicesales.sel.sony.com
Phone: (800) 488-7669

NOTE: The telephone hours for the Sony Direct Accessories and Parts Center are:

Monday through Friday 7:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. Central Standard Time
Saturday 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Central Standard Time
Sunday 11:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Central Standard Time

*****************
Good luck! If you are unable to order the recovery CD's, my advice to you to revover data off of the laptop, is to buy a 2.5" hard drive enclosure, take the hard drive out of your laptop, and put it in the enclosure. Then you should be able to connect it to another PC via USB and get the data off of it. I recommend the Hitachi upgrade kits...as they come with the 2.5" enclosure, so you can put the new drive in, and still get data off of the old one.

-Rob
Posted 48 months ago. ( permalink )

morkin_99 says:

Sorry, forgot the link to the Hitachi notebook drive replacement kits:

www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.6e 185ca3ee5b04...

-Rob
Posted 48 months ago. ( permalink )

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Comments

michaelarrington says:

michaelarrington says:

andykaufman says:

scriptingnews says:

seanwbohan says:

danmact says:

Joe Wilcox says:

michaelarrington says:

easea says:

michaelarrington says:

Serge K. Keller, FCD says:

Dmitry Chestnykh says:

michaelarrington says:

scriptingnews says:

indiekid says:

michaelarrington says:

MikeBladon says:

lexalexander says:

caseyparsons says:

dberlind says:

michaelarrington says:

dberlind says:

morkin_99 says:

morkin_99 says:

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