Advice for a Vista fresh reinstall .....

Hi all

I have dug out my old Sony Viao thats about 4 years old I was hopeing to use it just for general web ues etc.

When I get it I never made a start up disk and it never came with a vista Disk.
BR> I still have the vista sticker with the code on the back of the laptop a friend of mine has a Vista 64bit disk that I was thinking of trying to use but since mine was 32 bit I dont think this will work with my code.

Any sugestions as what I could do ?

Thanks for any advice

Norrie

You are basically "SOL".  The disc your friend has is already registered with Microsoft and it can't be used for a second install with his Product Key.  The Product Key you have is for a different Vista OS and it will not work with his copy either. 

Many PC's came with a recovery partition on the hard drive that will restore everything to the original factory condition.  If your lucky that is still there and you can use it.  Usually at Power On it will list what F key to press to access the recovery partition.  If not, Sony should list what it is for your PC.

If you can't use the system recovery partition, you will have to buy a Windows disc.  Since you will have to buy Windows, if it will handle Windows 7 buy a Win 7 Home (32 or 64) and install that. 

After installing a new operating system, the next stage is to install drivers for all of the hardware components.  Unfortunately, for a laptop, some of these components will be specific to that particular range or model.  Consequently, drivers will not necessarily be available for operating systems other than the one that the hardware was originally designed for.  It is therefore best to stick with Vista if the laptop was built for Vista.  The required drivers should be available on the manufacturer's website.

On the other hand, you could have partial success.  I tried installing XP on a Dell laptop that was originally built for Vista.  It mostly worked fine, but there were no XP drivers in existence for the graphics card.  Consequently the display settings could not be altered and I had to put up with a stretched image.  A couple of other things (e.g. built-in wireless networking) would not work with XP but this was not an issue for me.  I stuck with this setup for several months and never really experienced any problems.  Eventually I installed Vista and everything works properly now.

Why do you need to re-install the OS?
You do not say if the computer will run or not.
If it does then see this:
 
http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docTypeID=DT_KNOWLEDGEARTICLES_1_1&docType=kc&externalId=C397781
 
http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docTypeID=DT_KNOWLEDGEARTICLES_1_1&docType=kc&externalId=C1008008
 
Or call Sony support
 

Thanks for the replys guys !

I have it all up and runing again.

@Fireberd - His 64bit install disk worked fine and registered online with my 32bit code from the back of my computer. I was very suprised by this after your post.
BR> @kev999 - You are right the wireless drivers are not happy because there is no download for the driver I need on vista 64bit. I just pluged a dongle in and have net access now though :)

@ Slarta- Sorry I should have said it would boot to windows then just freeze

Thanks again for the replys guys.

Norrie

Hi Norrie,
 
Now, take the time to create a backup image file using True Image or similar.
That way you'll never be in the same situation.  

Hi Jim !

Nice to hear from you !

Thats the plan of attack.

The Viao I have is very out dated but I dont want to use my Daw for web design and the net book I am on has such a small screen it would be a total pain to do.

Norrie

Glad you got it running. I posted a thread a while back concerning nearly the same thing. Not knowing how well the hardware was working, I didn't want to spend money on a new OS disc. I finally tried Ubuntu and am liking it so far. Different from MS but quite usable.