Recovering Sony Laptop

August 13, 2007 10:01 AM

Sony PCG-TR2A Recovery CD: My laptop was hosed by a SP2 install, and I want to restore to the factory defaults without paying for a recovery CD

After installing Service Pack 2, I'm in a wonderful Blue Screen of Death loop. No access through safe mode, last know good config, etc.

The laptop has a built in recovery partition, but that is only accessible through Windows, or a seperate recovery CD, which at this point would be $20 to purchase from Sony or other retailers.

I ran off a Knoppix CD and pulled off all the data I need, so I'm not worried about losing that.

Basically, is there any way to get to this recovery image? What other options do I have for running a clean Windows install? (I currently don't have access to a copy of XP, but should have one later today)

posted by shinynewnick to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I've restored a TR1 from both the original Sony CDs as well as a standard XP install. The Sony CD had all the drivers but requires a lot of postfacto trialware removal as well as a SP2 upgrade. An XP CD won't have the Sony drivers, but will have SP2 if you get a recent one.

For the non-Sony approach, the best strategy is to download the network drivers from Sony's support site onto a USB key, because (at least for the TR1,) even SP2 discs will not know about either the wireless or the Ethernet card. Once you get either of those working, you can use the machine itself to download the rest of the Sony-specific software and drivers.
posted by squid patrol at 10:12 AM on August 13, 2007

Thanks squid. Did you have any problems using the XP Product Key from the laptop with the clean install?
posted by shinynewnick at 11:25 AM on August 13, 2007

Ah, that might be tricky -- the XP CD I used had its own, corporate (non-activation) serial. I am 99% sure that the serial printed on the bottom of the Vaio is for the OEM version only. You might have to do the $20 replacement recovery CDs (or see if eBay has them cheaper.)
posted by squid patrol at 1:13 PM on August 13, 2007

I too would recommend splurging the 20 bucks for the recovery CD. Else you're looking at a hassle.
But if you want to try, this may help:
XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option
posted by jak68 at 1:45 PM on August 13, 2007