Is it with SONY or else every other brand follow suit??

[jaykishankrk]

Hi Guys,

I purchased SONY VAIO laptop from newegg,

LINK: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16834117723

and i received the product 2 days back.. (My friend in Santa Clara received it). the package contents doesnt have any OS installation DVD. is this normal or else it is only to do with SONY as a brand?

what i should do to get Vista installation DVD from sony, if in case if i loose one?

Thanks in Advance!!

 

[Zap]

That's been normal for years. There is normally a one-use-only application on the system to burn your own set of recovery discs.

 

[jaykishankrk]

Originally posted by: Zap
That's been normal for years. There is normally a one-use-only application on the system to burn your own set of recovery discs.

Then there is no way i can do clean install of vista? considering that the laptop came with tons of bloatware on it? it is really PIA for guys like us who would like to dual boot with xp or something.. what should one do in such situation?

 

[abaez]

You'll probably have to buy Vista separately if you want to do a clean install. The recovery discs usually include all of the bloatware that came with the machine.

Perhaps you can nlite vista to remove all the bloat? Not sure.

 

[Parasitic]

Is there a Vista anytime upgrade CD?

 

[jaykishankrk]

Originally posted by: abaez
You'll probably have to buy Vista separately if you want to do a clean install. The recovery discs usually include all of the bloatware that came with the machine.

Perhaps you can nlite vista to remove all the bloat? Not sure.

what if, I download Vista separately from MSDN and then use the OEM key which is available underneath the laptop? will this work or else not worth trying?
as i know vista has an option to update or change the product Key when u feel like doing it , am i right or not?

Parasitic: Man r u asking about laptop package content having Vista upgrade CD or else the topic is out of context here?

one things for sure, Laptop package content did not have any upgrade CD's

 

[corkyg]

My Lenovo T60 came with a Microsoft Vista upgrade DVD - has all the versions, but you must provide the KEY ID. Your plan to use a generic download with the Sony key should work.

I don't understand why you don't just uninstall the unwanted bloatware and follow that up with a good Registry scrub. Plenty of free utilities to do that. Clean installs are what I consider as true PITAs.

Today, it is common for OEMs to put the restore DVD in a hidden partition on the HDD. Sometimes you can burn that to a DVD yourself.

 

[jaykishankrk]

Originally posted by: corkyg
My Lenovo T60 came with a Microsoft Vista upgrade DVD - has all the versions, but you must provide the KEY ID. Your plan to use a generic download with the Sony key should work.

I don't understand why you don't just uninstall the unwanted bloatware and follow that up with a good Registry scrub. Plenty of free utilities to do that. Clean installs are what I consider as true PITAs.

Today, it is common for OEMs to put the restore DVD in a hidden partition on the HDD. Sometimes you can burn that to a DVD yourself.

Well this makes sense isnt it!! In that case can you give me an idea on how to go about unearthing the hidden partition which you have mentioned? I do care about minimizing my workload but having to do clean install is my way of going about things and in a way I consider it to be less PIA . I will be waiting for your response though

 

[corkyg]

As I recall, the F10 key should activate the Vaio recovery console. Sometimes it comes with a Recovery Wizard icon on the desktop.

The problem with laptop clean installs is that you must have all of the proprietary drivers on hand or many of the laptop features will not work afterwards.

Unhiding a partition can be done with a disk utility such as Symantec Partition Manager or Acronis Disk Director.

 

[fatpat268]

I don't even bother with restore discs. The first thing I do with a brand new laptop is uninstall all the bloatware and unneeded applications, clean out the registry, install some essential programs that I always use/need, and then image it with Acronis. That way, if I want to restore, I don't bother with uninstalling bloat, or finding drivers and installing programs if I'm starting from scratch.

 

[jaykishankrk]

Originally posted by: corkyg
As I recall, the F10 key should activate the Vaio recovery console. Sometimes it comes with a Recovery Wizard icon on the desktop.

The problem with laptop clean installs is that you must have all of the proprietary drivers on hand or many of the laptop features will not work afterwards.

Unhiding a partition can be done with a disk utility such as Symantec Partition Manager or Acronis Disk Director.

The proprietary Drivers which u guys are talking about, is it to do with the AV button functionality on my lappy or else it includes MB drivers and stuff?

because if it is to do with AV button then do hell with it.. i don't care.. the reason why i am stressing on clean install is.. that i would be experimenting with dual booting vista and Leopard OS.. so now i think you guys got the catch isn't it? tell me if i am doing anything wrong by trying out this dual boot thing..

 

[IlllI]

Originally posted by: jaykishankrk


The proprietary Drivers which u guys are talking about, is it to do with the AV button functionality on my lappy or else it includes MB drivers and stuff?

those drivers can include just about anything. the touch pad functionality, motherboard chipset/lan, sound etc

basically most of it would be essential stuff

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Parasitic
Is there a Vista anytime upgrade CD?

Yeah, new Vista PCs are supposed to ship with that.

 

[beat mania]

Originally posted by: jaykishankrk

Originally posted by: abaez
You'll probably have to buy Vista separately if you want to do a clean install. The recovery discs usually include all of the bloatware that came with the machine.

Perhaps you can nlite vista to remove all the bloat? Not sure.

what if, I download Vista separately from MSDN and then use the OEM key which is available underneath the laptop? will this work or else not worth trying?
as i know vista has an option to update or change the product Key when u feel like doing it , am i right or not?

Parasitic: Man r u asking about laptop package content having Vista upgrade CD or else the topic is out of context here?

one things for sure, Laptop package content did not have any upgrade CD's

These 2 links should help you. They tell you everything you need to do a clean Vista install.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=240320