HDD issue when recovery attempted.

[Iusedtolovesony]

Guys,

I am unable to recover factory settings from the disks, receiving error 332.

From google I see its related to HDD and appears a common problem.

My IT guy replaced the HDD as it crashed and would like to know what I must do to get through this obstacle please.

Thanks.

[Iusedtolovesony]

As the PC eventually was in a state of not booting at all and black screen, I booted in safe mode and loaded disk-2 from the Sony supplied Win-7 upgrade set of two.

I really did appear I was successful, but get the message "Counterfeit software of Win" and it has come up with just black screen and "No operating system".

Reboot and it checked for fault, then suggested retore to earlier date. It worked OK.

I spoke to Sony and never thought to mention the HDD change and bought the recovery disks hoping to start from scratch.

I cannot see why I cannot buy a replacement and have it fitted, rather than send to a Sony repair outlet and be ripped off.

I do own it now, but still tied to their repairs???? dont seem right.

[kee-lo_]

No, you are right, it does seem rather stingy of them not to allow you to install a new HDD.  The only way round it would be to buy Windows again 😞

[rich912]

You can fit a replacement HDD and reinstall the original OS and software from the recovery media as long as the replacement drive has the same sector structure as the original.There have been many posts by members of this formum that will confirm this plus my own personal experience, having replaced more than one HDD on Vaio's.

I urge you to check the sector size of the replacement drive. 

I stress again that copyright problems resulting from replacing the drive is nonsense. Yes Sony do protect the recovery media so that it cannot be used other tnan on the original Vaio model but the necessary imformation that governs this is held on the motherboard not the hard drive.

Rich 

[rich912]

In fact Sony state on the support site that you should create recovery media to restore your system in the case of hard disk drive failure.

[Iusedtolovesony]

I appreciate all the help guys, thanks!

I did make recovery disks after purchasing. Dye to ignorance of the error 332, I thought it best to get Sony ones to remove doubt on my disks etc.

I have written to Sony in reply to theirs copied and pasted earlier to tell me where I can order the Sony replacement.

Lets see what they choose, helpful to life long customer or the expected? This may end my future interest in their products.

Asper my user name "IusedtolikeSony".

Thanks again Guys.

[Iusedtolovesony]

Thought I would share the reply from Sony.
After many years of being a staunch Sony man, their arrogant attitude has finished me.
We acknowledge that you would like to purchase a hard disk drive for your VAIO. We are afraid that Sony policy restricts selling such space parts to end-user, dealers or third party repair shops.

The only way to obtain new hard disk drive is either by sending the VAIO to the Sony repair centre or getting it repaired by local authorised service partner. Please accept our sincere apologies if you found this disappointing.

So, you purchase your
PC, the warranty ends and despite you owning the item, they want to control how you repair it, to replace THEIR rubbish software. You couldn't make this up!