Windows reinstall or repair

[noxiousCaitSith]

I'm trying to get my parents' computer working again. i changed the video card which i was hoping was the only problem but when i turn the computer on it says i need to insert something to boot from. i don't want to have to reinstall windows cause we have the media center edition and they didn't give us a recovery cd or anything like that. so we would lose a few programs that come with media center edition. so i'm not really sure what to do. also does anyone know what the administrator password might be for a sony vaio? i've tried: admin, administrator, password, sony, and i've also just left it blank but none of those worked.

 

[mpilchfamily]

The admin password will be whatever the owners of the unit set it too when they first turned the system on and registered it. But if there is a problem with the OS install you'll need to use the original disk and perform a repair install. If you don't have it get anotehr disk. But if that doesn't help you may need a fresh install.

 

[noxiousCaitSith]

yeah i don't know what's up with it and it didn't come with a disc to reinstall or anything. and if i reinstall windows it will erase everything, correct? i might just get another hard drive and use that instead. i was able to pull files off of my parents hard drive onto my computer.

 

[Trashman]

Is there an option to make a recovery disk? look in programs, my brother had a Vaio, came with no disk as well but I thought i had seen a program from sony to make one.....i'd look into that.