Download Windows disk and drivers disk?

[NickC_UK]

Is there anywhere I can download the drivers disk and windows media for a Sony VAIO all-in-one machine.  My hard disk has died and I need to reinstall windows but the machine did not come with any install CDs.

Thanks,

[rich912]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the copy of the email; this has been forwarded to one of our contacts within Vaio-Link. Unfortunately he is away until the beginning of next week but if anyone can answer this question he can...

I will post again as soon as I receive a response.

Rich

[NickC_UK2]

And just to make matters worse:

I have spoken to our local Sony repaire centre to see how much they would want for a new 500Gb SATA HDD, however this bunch of shysters want to charge £70 in order to tell me how much their price is for a new disk drive (roughly £40 elsewhere).

I am rapidly getting close to the point where I would never buy anything Sony ever again.

[NickC_UK2]

Rich, any progress on this yet or are you still awaiting a reply from you contact at Sony.

[rich912]

Hi Nick,

Just received a reply.

It would seem that as your machine is approximately 3 years old and with some formats of new hard drives the recovery disks may not support the current technology and will therefore fail to install.

So the recovery disks supplied by Sony may or may not work. However if they do not work then Sony will refund the cost of the disks.

Otherwise you will need to install a retail copy of the OS and then download all available drivers and utilities from the Support site. Unfortunately most of the preinstalled software is not available for download.

Hope this helps,

Rich

[NickC_UK2]

Yep, most helpful.  If Sony will refund should it not work then I will go ahead and try it anyway, shame they didn't say that in the first place.

Personally I can't see under what conditions 'some formats of new hard drives' could possibly prevent recovery disks from installing, as long as the replacementg drive is of the same capacity.  If there were and SATA 1/2/3 issues then that would be hardware not a software issue.

Thanks for your help, will report back on whether thes install or not.

[rich912]

Hi Chris,

I don’t claim to have much knowledge of this but I think the reference is to Advanced Format hard drives with larger 4096 byte (4 KB) sectors as opposed to older drives having 512-byte sectors.

The retail copy of Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems will be AF aware but not the recovery disks (OEM OS) created some 3 years ago.

Good luck at and us know how you get on.

Rich

[NickC_UK2]

Install media now ordered but... took almost half an hour to order and cost nearly £50.

Also again I was told that the recovery disk would probably not work with a replaced hard drive.  I was also told that if it didn't work then Sony would _not_ give any refund, which is different to the answer from your contact.  Have ordered one anyway.

This must be one of the worst examples of customer service I think I have ever encountered from any Company.

[rich912]

NickC_UK2 wrote:
Also again I was told that the recovery disk would probably not work with a replaced hard drive.  I was also told that if it didn't work then Sony would _not_ give any refund, which is different to the answer from your contact. 

I have it in writing that if they don't work the cost will be refunded, so you are covered should the worst happen. My guess is that unless it is an Advanced Format drive you should be ok.

Rich

[rich912]

Hi Nick,

I understand that the recovery disks should have been delivered today.

Please let us know whether they work with the new hard drive as I suspect this will be a an issue that will be raised by members in the future.

Rich

[NickC_UK2]

Yep, recovery disks received, just waiting for a new hard disk drive to arrive.  Will post back soon.