Sony Vaio PCG-Z Series Recovery Disc Problems

[krisslater]

Hi All

I have a Sony Vaio PCG-Z1RMP and I am trying to recover the system using the recovery disc that was supplied with the laptop when I purchased it. Unfortunately when I put the disc into the laptop it appears to be blank! I'm not sure how this has happened because I have used the disc before and it worked perfectly.

I tried following Sony's advice of starting the recovery program (using F10 at system start) but this didn't work either, I don't think I have a recovery partition on my laptop.

Can anyone offer any advice in order for me to move forward? Or maybe I could get a copy of the recovery disc?

Any help would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Kris

[rich912]

Hi Kris and welcome.

There are a couple a things that you could try.

1 Clean both the disk and the laser lens.

2 Try the disk in another machine. If that machine reads it then do a disk copy and see whether the copy is readable in your machine.

You should be able to order a set of recovery media from Support – cost is approx. €50 I believe.

[krisslater]

Hi and thank you for your response.

There must be something wrong with my Internal CD/DVD drive as the disc works in my external CD/DVD drive.

How do I get my vaio to boot from my external drive so that it will run the recovery disc instead of starting windows? I have tried restarting the laptop with the disc in the drive and this doesn't work! It reads the disc but then just starts windows normally.

[Blencogo]

Hi Kris,

Unfortunately you cannot boot or recover from an external CD drive.

It sounds like a problem with your internal drive - is it shown as installed and working correctly in Device Manager?

Check in Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disc Management. Is a healthy EISA Recovery Partition shown?

[krisslater]

Hi

Yes both partitions show as healthy.

Bizarrely other discs work on my internal CD/DVD drive just not the recovery one! But the recovery one will open on my external drive. I have also tried copying the disc and putting it in the internal drive and this doesn't work either.

So frustrating! Why would this disc work in one drive and not in the other?

[krisslater]

Has anyone got any ideas on this? I'm absolutely stumped.

[Blencogo]

I have just checked and the PCG-Z1 Series of Vaios were made before the Recovery Partition was invented. There is no recovery partition and the recovery software was provided on purchase on a set of CDs. See your Software Guide - Page 120

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/Manuals/Notebooks/Z1/Z1_S_UK.pdf
are using the System Recovery Disc?

Did you check that your DVD/CD-ROM drive is installed correctly in Device Manager and is showing no errors? There is a firmware update listed on the download page for your model - I know this is old but are you sure the firmware for your drive is up to date.

If the System disc boots up another PC if inserted before you reboot and does not do the same in your Vaio then your CD Drive will in all probablility require replacing.

[rich912]

I agree with Blencogo that “We are running out of options”, but grasping at straws here – do you have all Service Packs installed, especially SP2?

[krisslater]

Yes you are right I definitely don't have a recovery partition. I am trying to recover because I have some programs on my system that I cannot remove and the system is generally running sluggishly.

I am trying to recover using the recovery and documentation disc that was supplied with my pc and it is this that is not working on my internal drive. What I don't understand is why other cd's will work in this drive and not this one? (that would suggest that there isn't a problem with the drive).

I can start the disc on my external drive (whilst running windows) but I get this message "This disk is used for recovery. To recover, exit windows with the recovery disk set in your computer. Then, turn off the power. Recovery utility starts from the disk"

When I start the system with the disk in my internal drive it seems to read it but then starts windows normally. If I try to explore it whilst in windows it comes up blank when in the internal drive but not the external.

What I need is a way to get the system to read from the external drive on startup or to be able to go straight to command prompt rather than starting windows so that I can execute the autorun program from there. I have read that you can update your BIOS to read from USB devices but I haven't got a clue how to do this. The simplest option would be to start from command prompt.

Yes I have SP2 installed and running.

My biggest worry is that if something does go terribly wrong I have no way of recovering the PC.

[krisslater]

I meant to add that I have updated the driver for the CD drive.