Vaio Recovery Utility

[leethepee]

Hi,
When I bought my Vaio (FZ18M) I never got a Vista installation disc. Is this cause the backup is stored on my HD and if so do we have to use Vaio Recovery Utility to restored to a "out the box" state?

Also, is there a way to boot the recovery when Vista boots? I recall on some Dell PC's in the past you had a shortcut key to boot this restore.

Thanks

Lee

[Thalamus.]

Hi Lee

you can use either the HDD recovery partition or the recovery disc's, if you've created them to restore your Vaio back to the original "out the box" state..

To create a set of recovery disc's see the guide below..

Click Start, All Programs, then Vaio Recovery Center..

Click Continue on the User Account Control window

Select Create Recovery Disc then press Start..

Also, is there a way to boot the recovery when Vista boots? I recall on some Dell PC's in the past you had a shortcut key to boot this restore.

Start your Vaio and when you see the Vaio logo screen press F10 repeatedly this normally would start the recovery process..

[leethepee]

So I can get away with using the recovery tool once logged in. Instead I can just hit F10 when I restart? Is this what the shadow partition is on my HD then? So in other words, theres no need to create a recovery disk?

[Thalamus.]

So I can get away with using the recovery tool once logged in.  Instead I can just hit F10 when I restart?

Yes you can..

So in other words, theres no need to create a recovery disk?

It would be wise to create a set of recovery disc's just in case your HDD recovery partition became damaged or corrupted in the future..

[leethepee]

Looking into this post it would appear that I do not have on my PC a program called Vaio Recovery Center, instead, I have a program called Vaio Recovery Utility. Is this just the same program but called something slightly different?

Also, where you have mentioned "Create Recovery Disc" all I can see within my options that is similar is "Create Recovery Media Kit". Is this not just the program to restore applications after a brand new installation of Vista?

I thank you in advance.

[Thalamus.]

Yes Vaio Recovery Utility and Vaio Recovery Center are the same..

The Recovery Media Kit allows you to restore your Vaio back to it's original Sony supplied OS and pre-installed applications..

I have attached a link for the Recovery Guide for your FZ, use the following link should you wish to view the guide: FZ Recovery Guide