recover disk question?

[laurence_brown_]

Hi All,

Kind-of new to this so excuse me if my question is a little lame or previously answered.

i have a Vaio vgn-ar31m and I would like to do a clean install (back to factory settings), however the recovery disks i created when I first got the laptop are really quite scratched and I'm nervous about using them incase they don't work properly, or they partially work then cock up half way through a fresh install! Additionally don't i have a partition created on my Hard disk with the recovery info on as it suggests in the support section of this site!

So my question is, is it possible to download new recovery disks from the internet or can anyone suggest an alternative way to do a clean install?

thanks
Laurence

[Blencogo]

Hi Laurence and welcome to Club Vaio.

There are no lame questions here, just join in.

You say you don't have a Recovery Partition. Are you sure? Have you deleted it?
Check by going to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Managament -> Disc Management
Is a Recovery Partition shown?

If the Recovery Partition is there, you can carry out a full recovery by resetting the default values in the BIOS and:
1. Going to All Programs -> Vaio Recovery Utility and following the instructions to recover your computer.
OR
2. Reboot and at the first Vaio screen, tap F10 continuously which will start the recovery.

If you have deleted the Recovery Partition and your Recovery Discs are damaged, you will need to purchase a new set of discs from Sony for about £40 because the operating system and preinstalled software cannot be downloaded.