[Die4me]

My friend wants me to reformat his entire sony vaio computer. I know when I reformatted my comp, all I needed to do was put the restore cd into my computer, boot it up, and then choose reformat. However with his computer there are 6 different restore cd's and when I put one into the cd drive and try to boot it up, the computer simply ignores it and starts normally.

If one of you guys could provide simple instructions on how to reformat this desktop, I would really appreciate it. I'd really prefer staying away from anything to do with dos or the bios unless it's an absolute must. Also do I even need to use all of the six recovery cd's?

Here's the details of the comp:

Sony Vaio Pcv-RX550
Windows XP Home
Pentium 4 Processor

Info on six restore cd's

- Sony recovery pcv-rx500 series cd#1 version 45.2
- Sony recovery pcv-rx500 series cd#2 version 45.2
- Sony recovery pcv-rx500 series cd#1 version 45.1
- Sony recovery pcv-rx500 series cd#2 version 45.1
- Sony recovery pcv-rx500 series cd#3 version 45.1
- Sony recovery pcv-rx500 series version 45.0

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Please cheak with the maker's site, as some vios have a special key like F11 to enter the restore cd, so it is not booting up on the cd but pressing the special button while booting.

Edited by fleamailman, 05 February 2007 - 07:25 AM.

[fleamailman]

Please cheak with the maker's site, as some vios have a special key like F11 to enter the restore cd, so it is not booting up on the cd but pressing the special button while booting.

Edited by fleamailman, 05 February 2007 - 07:25 AM.

[peter99]

PCV-RX550/PCV-RX560/PCV-RX570

You will lose any software you have installed and any other files you have created since you started to use your computer. You must reinstall any applications that were not included with the computer when you purchased it.

Using the System Recovery CD(s)
1 Insert the System Recovery CD in your computer’s optical drive. The System Recovery utility starts from the optical drive. The first CD must be in the drive when you turn on your computer.
2 Turn off your computer.
3 Wait 30 seconds and turn on your computer.
4 Type the letter “O” to signify you have read and accepted the Microsoft End-User License Agreement.
5 When the System Recovery menu appears, follow the on-screen instructions to complete the recovery process.

Your system may include one or more System Recovery CDs. If you have more than one System Recovery CD, insert the first CD to run the System Recovery program. You are prompted to insert the next CD(s) once the information from the first CD has been installed.
The recovery process takes approximately 30 to 60 minutes to complete. After recovering your system using the System Recovery CD(s), you may be prompted to insert your Application Recovery CD(s) after restarting Windows. Use the
Application Recovery CD(s) to complete full restoration of your system.

The Application Recovery CD utility enables you to reinstall individual software applications if they become corrupted or are erased. Reinstalling an individual software application may correct a problem that you are experiencing with your
computer or specific application. You may not need to reinstall the entire contents of your hard drive.
You must be in Windows to run the Application Recovery CD utility. If you have any questions about using the Application Recovery CD(s), contact Sony
Customer Support at 1-888-4-SONY-PC.

Using the Application Recovery CD(s)
1 Turn on your computer. If your computer is already on, save and close all open applications.
2 When the Windows desktop appears, insert the Application Recovery CD into your computer’s optical drive. The Application Recovery utility loads automatically.

If your system is equipped with two optical drives, insert the Application Recovery CD into the upper optical drive.
✍ Your system may include one or more Application Recovery CDs. If you have more than one Application Recovery CD, insert the first CD to run the Application Recovery utility. You may be prompted to insert the next CD(s), depending on the software application you wish to restore.

The Driver Recovery CD utility enables you to reinstall individual drivers and repair software applications if they become corrupted or are erased. You can reinstall an individual driver to correct a problem that you are experiencing with your computer, peripheral hardware, or software application.
You must be in Windows to run the Driver Recovery CD utility.

Reinstalling several device drivers with the Driver Recovery CD
1 Turn on your computer. If your computer is already on, close all applications.
2 When the Windows desktop appears, insert the Driver Recovery CD into the optical disc drive.
3 Click Start in the Windows taskbar and click Control Panel. The Control
Panel window appears.
4 Click Performance and Maintenance and click System. The System Properties dialog box appears.
5 From the Hardware tab, click Device Manager.
6 Click to select the unknown device or the device that requires the driver installation. The unknown device(s) is identified by a yellow question mark.
✍ If you need to reinstall all of the software applications that shipped with your computer, use

7 From the Action menu, click Uninstall. This removes the device driver from your system. Click OK. Repeat for each device driver as necessary.
8 Restart your computer. Click Start in the Windows taskbar, select Turn Off Computer, and then click Restart.
9 When the desktop appears, Windows automatically reinstalls the device driver(s) from the Driver Recovery CD.

[Die4me]

The problem seems to be that the computer will not detect the recover cd's. It has both a dvd player on top and a cdrw drive on the bottom. The dvd drive is broken (as in won't even open) so the cdrw drive must be used. I called sony vaio techincal support and they were stumped as well.

We tried changing the bootup drive to the cdrw in the bios and that didn't work. Also tried pressing f5 enter and f10 in bios.. also didn't work

Last suggestion they gave me was to open up the comp and physically switch the ribbon from the dvd drive to the cdrw.

I'm going to try that today but I will be totally puzzled if that doesn't work...

[peter99]

Try disconnecting the dvd drive and set the cdrom to master on the second IDE channel

[rainair]

I found this thread with a Google search. I have a Mac Pro and want to partition the hard drive and install Windows so I can boot either OS. I found the same software on Craig's list (PCV-RX500 series SONY XP Windows Recovery software with Service Pack 2). Do you know if recovery software is the same as a full version software? The question is, will this work on my Mac?

Thanks in advance.